The Oregon ranchers whose federal prison sentences sparked the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County were pardoned by President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Dwight and Steven Hammond join a number of people whose pardons have raised questions. The list includes former Arizona Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio, former Dick Cheney advisor I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and conservative filmmaker Dinesh Joseph D’Souza.
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For burning 139 acres of federal land in Harney County, Oregon, during a hunting trip in 2001, the Hammonds were sentenced to 18 months in prison. But a federal appeal of the case later imposed the mandatory minimum sentence of five years for destroying federal land with fire, in accordance with the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act passed by Congress in 1996.
The Hammonds had already served their original sentence when they were called back to serve out the remainder of their individual sentences; Steven, the son, was also convicted of setting a different fire in 2006, though he said that fire was a controlled burn to prevent the spread of wildfire onto the ranchers’ property.
It was the Justice Department’s appeal to see more time served that inspired Ammon and Ryan Bundy to head to Oregon with their followers in late 2015.
The Bundys said they were going to stop the federal government from detaining the Hammonds, so they took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and had a standoff with local law enforcement and federal agents for 41 days.
For their part, the Bundys and a handful of others were acquitted for the refuge takeover while 18 others received varying sentences, from fines and probation to actual prison sentences.
On Tuesday, Oregon Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River) called the president’s most recent pardon “a win for justice.”
“I applaud President Trump for thoroughly reviewing the facts of this case, rightly determining the Hammonds were treated unfairly, and taking action to correct this injustice,” Walden said in a statement. “For far too long, Dwight and Steven Hammond have been serving a mandatory minimum sentence that was established for terrorists … As ranchers across eastern Oregon frequently tell me, the Hammonds didn’t deserve a five year sentence for using fire as a management tool, something the federal government does all the time.”
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In 2012, when the Hammonds were convicted for the burn incident, witnesses told the court overseeing the case that Steven gave out “Strike Anywhere” matches and told his hunting party to light and drop them on the ground “because they were going to ‘light up the whole country on fire,'” according to a DOJ news release from October 2015, which also noted one witness as saying “he barely escaped the eight to ten foot high flames caused by the arson.”
The Oregon Farm Bureau, which had also backed the Hammonds by gathering more than 25,000 online signatures in support of clemency, also announced its approval of the president’s use of pardoning powers.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Steven and Dwight as they get back to the people and the land they love,” OFB President Barry Bushue said in a statement. “We will continue to do whatever we can to ensure that this injustice is never repeated.”
Top Image: BURNS, OR – JANUARY 05: A sign in support for jailed ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond is seen on January 5, 2016 in Burns, Oregon. An armed anti-government militia group continues to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Headquarters in protest of the jailing of two ranchers for arson. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)