In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we speak to environmental activist Eric McDavid, who has just been released from prison 10 years early after federal prosecutors acknowledged withholding key evidence about how he may have been entrapped by an FBI informant with whom he had fallen in love. In 2008, McDavid was sentenced to 19 years in prison for conspiring to bomb sites in California including the Nimbus Dam. Defense attorneys say he was entrapped by a teenage informant who went by the name “Anna” and supplied him with food, housing and bomb-making instructions, and pressured him into illegal activity. As part of a settlement reached in the case on Thursday, federal prosecutors acknowledged withholding key evidence, including an FBI request for the informant to undergo a lie-detector test. This damning detail about the government’s star witness was found in thousands of documents released after his trial, when his supporters filed a Freedom of Information Act request. In his first interview since his release, McDavid joins us from Sacramento along with his partner Jenny Esquivel, a member of the group Sacramento Prisoner Support. We are also joined by McDavid’s lawyer, Ben Rosenfeld, a civil rights attorney who specializes in cases dealing with police andFBI misconduct.
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Eric McDavid, environmental activist released from prison on Thursday, less than a week after federal prosecutors disclosed they withheld key evidence in the 2008 trial that led to his conviction on “eco-terrorism” charges.
Ben Rosenfeld, Eric McDavid’s lawyer. He is a civil rights attorney who specializes in cases dealing with police and FBI misconduct. He is also an advisory board member of the Civil Liberties Defense Center.
Jenny Esquivel, member of Sacramento Prisoner Support and also Eric McDavid’s partner.
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