Posted for Emma Marris

Marie Mason was sentenced last week to nearly 22 years in prison for a 1999 arson. Mason and others conspired to set fire to the Michigan State University campus offices of the Agriculture Biotechnology Support Project, which promoted the use of genetically-modified crops in the developing world (See the lead-in to this editorial for more information on the motivation). Because the arson of the was motivated by anti-genetic modification ideologies, the sentencing judge followed “terrorism enhancement” guidelines to set the sentence.

“This is the sort of sentence one would expect from a murder case, or a plot to commit mass, indiscriminate murder—something truly terroristic.” says Mason’s lawyer, John Minock. He adds that Mason plans to appeal the sentence. A support site for Mason has also been set up.

US Attorney Don Davis, who supervised the prosecution, says that scholars at Michigan State University felt fearful and intimidated by the arson—and that spells terrorism to him.

Other dangerous arsons in the west have met with stiff punishments. A group that set fires in the name of the Earth Liberation Front in the west got 3 to 13 years apiece. Mason’s sentence is nearly twice that.

In a statement released last week university president Lou Anna K. Simon said, “This was an assault on the core value of free and open inquiry at a research university. We always must be open to ideas that challenge our own, but what we must never allow are disruptions meant to shut down the open marketplace of ideas.”

More on the crime and the case against Mason at Michigan State University.

Commentary on the sentencing from Green is the New Red, a blog that likens the campaign against “eco-terrorists” to the Red Scare and crackdown on US communists in the 1950s.

Image: the aftermath of the arson / MSU