Climate Activists Who Doused the US Constitution in Red Powder Sentenced to Prison

Two climate activists who doused a display case containing the U.S. Constitution in red power at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. earlier this year have received prison sentences, ABC News reported earlier this month.

Donald Zepeda of Maryland received a two-year sentence, while Jackson Green of Utah received 18 months. Both will have two years of supervised release.

Additionally, they are expected to pay the National Archives $58,607.59 for damaging the display case. Zepeda and Green pleaded guilty to one charge of destruction of government property.

Though the Constitution was unscathed by the incident, the museum closed its doors to the public for four days and has increased security.

“I did genuinely think we were going about the actions in such a way that they wouldn’t cause significant harm to others, but I realize now the ignorance and lack of consideration that belief represented. I also recognize that regardless of my intentions, the harm I caused is real and is my responsibility,” Green said in a statement.

He added, “I have come to realize that in addition to causing direct harm to individuals, destructive protest actions like the ones I carried out can lead to the opposite of our intentions by creating a negative response—turning people off from climate activism and creating further discord.”

Zepeda defended his actions and blamed the government for its involvement with the fossil-fuel industry, as well as its failure to appropriately address the climate crisis.

“We need to feel that real sense of fear and emotion, lest we relegate this issue to future generations who are less able to address the problem”, Zepeda said.

US district judge Amy Berman Jackson, who presided over the case, characterized their actions as “unserious, ineffective and unconnected to the climate emergency in any way.”

“The message has to be clear: eco-vandalism is not a good idea,” she continued. “It’s not ecological. It’s just vandalism.”

Zepeda has a longer history of climate-related protesting. He filmed the painting of the case containing Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. last spring.

Green, meanwile, wrote “Honor Them” in red paint on the wall next to an African American Civil War memorial at the National Gallery of Art late last fall. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison and ordered to pay $706 in restitution to the NGA.