Eric McDavid (born October 7, 1977) is an American green anarchist who was convicted of conspiring to use fire or explosives to damage corporate and government property and sentenced to 20 years in prison. While U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott has called McDavid the first person in the U.S. to be prosecuted on

Earth Liberation Front The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for Wiktionary:autonomy, autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the ELF Press Office, use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to ...

(ELF)-related charges,Eco-Terror Suspect Guilty in Bomb Plot
, '' News 10'', September 27th 2007. the trial revealed that McDavid's group had not decided whether or not to claim the planned actions in the name of the ELF. On January 8, 2015, after he spent eight years and 360 days in prison, McDavid's conviction was overturned after the prosecution conceded that the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) had withheld thousands of pages of potentially

exculpatory evidence Exculpatory evidence is evidence favorable to the defendant in a criminal trial that exonerates or tends to exonerate the defendant of guilt. It is the opposite of inculpatory evidence, which tends to present guilt. In many countries, includin ...

Sabotage plans

Together with Zach Jenson, Lauren Weiner, and "Anna" (Zoe Elizabeth Voss, a paid FBI

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...

) McDavid planned acts of arson and sabotage to the Nimbus Dam,

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

, and nearby utilities. "Anna" had been working with the FBI to infiltrate the group since 2004. She encouraged their activities and provided them with bomb-making information, money to buy the raw materials, transportation and a cabin to work in, and produced consensual audio and video recordings of their activities. "Anna" made use of McDavid's attraction to her: he described her as his "soul twin" and said he had changed his behavior in order to please her. According to "Anna", McDavid threatened to kill her if she turned out to be working with law enforcement. Defense attorney Mark Reichel argued that "Anna" acted as an

agent provocateur An is a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups. In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a ...

: encouraging the group to focus on a target, paying for meeting arrangements and supplies, and urging the group to act when they wavered. Reichel said "Anna" taught McDavid, Jenson and Weiner how to make bombs and supervised their activities. Reichel stated at the trial, "the crisp $100 bills and a Dutch Flat cabin where the group lived in the days leading up to the trio's arrest—all supplied by 'Anna' thanks to her FBI sponsors ... That's the creation of a case ... Without 'Anna,' you have nothing."

Arrest, conviction, and appeal

On January 13, 2006, the three were arrested outside a store where they had purchased household chemicals, presumably for bomb-making. None of the three had prior convictions. McDavid spent two years pre-trial in solitary confinement. He also formally declared a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...

due to the jail's refusal to provide him with

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

food. He was given vegan food intermittently. At their 2008 trials, Weiner and Jenson both pled guilty and testified against McDavid. His defense contended that he was the victim of

entrapment Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or an agent of the state induces a person to commit a crime that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit.''Sloane'' (1990) 49 A Crim R 270. See also agent prov ...

. McDavid was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. "Anna" was paid over $65,000 for her role in securing McDavid's conviction. Intelligence acquired from her deployment was used in 12 other prosecutions of anarchists. Within the anarchist, environmental and animal rights movements in the United States, "Anna"'s unmasking contributed to internal divisions and snitch-jacketing. On May 6, 2009, McDavid's attorney filed an appeal. The appeal was denied in 2010.

Release

On January 8, 2015, McDavid was released from prison after the FBI admitted it had withheld approximately 2,500 pages of documents potentially useful for his defense, which included love letters exchanged between "Anna" and McDavid and proof that she had been exempted from a requested FBI polygraph test by her handler, Special Agent Ricardo Torres. The release was made in exchange for his guilty plea to a lesser charge of general conspiracy.

Sabotage plans

Arrest, conviction, and appeal

Release

See also

References

Further reading