Skip to content

Support grows for New Hampshire man jailed for defending his property

December 9, 2010

  There isn’t much news to report on Ward Bird–the New Hampshire man jailed for three years for defending his property–but the support for his plight is growing and spreading throughout the state.

  There are now several fundraisers scheduled to help Ward Bird and his family with legal expenses that you can read about here, and paperwork for a pardon review have been filed with the New Hampshire Attorney General. I can only hope that a pardon makes it to the desk of John Lynch, and I can only hope that John Lynch does what is right and pardons Ward Bird.

   Ward Bird is an outstanding citizen and Boy Scout leader who was sentenced under the mandatory sentencing guidelines to three years in jail for defending his property even though he had no prior record, and did nothing wrong other that think he actually had second amendment rights.

 This is a travesty of justice which has led me to rethink my support for mandatory sentences. Ward Bird is gaining support from fellow citizens of New Hampshire; we are a citizenry who takes our right to keep and bear arms very seriously, in fact the New Hampshire constitution reaffirms a person’s right to bear arms even more clearly than does the United States constitution–the New Hampshire constitution declares that a person has the right to defend his property, yet Ward Bird has been jailed for doing just that.

  Governor Lynch–FREE WARD BIRD!

6 Comments leave one →
  1. Matt's avatar
    December 10, 2010 12:09 am

    Zero tolerance means zero common sense.

    Like

    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 10, 2010 6:56 am

      I agree. I used to think that mandatory sentencing was good because it protected the people from liberal, lenient judges, but now I have changed my tune and it is because of this case. Judges need to be able to look at all the circumstances around the case as well as a person’s background when determining a sentence.

      Like

  2. Integrity1st's avatar
    Integrity1st permalink
    December 10, 2010 12:23 am

    I hope you and others will continue to pound this issue. This is a big problem. Not just our second ammendment rights, but all our rights are being infringed on, and too many people don’t care until it happens to them. Everyone in NH needs to take a stand on this. Keep it in the forefront!

    Like

    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 10, 2010 6:57 am

      I will continue the updates as they come in, I am not going to let this go away if I can help it.

      Like

  3. John Martin's avatar
    December 10, 2010 9:25 am

    As we get more information, we post it here: http://freewardbird.org

    Our mission is four-fold:
    1. Get Ward out of a cell and returned home through Administrative Home Confinement for Christmas
    2. Get Ward a full pardon
    3. Get Ward’s record expunged
    4. Change the law so that no one else suffers his fate

    We are instituting a 1000-letter campaign through the next week in support of our first goal. These letters are being directed to two specific individuals, the NH Dept of Corrections Commissioner and the Governor. I’ve included those addresses below in the event that any of your readers feel strongly enough about this situation to support Ward.

    Governor John Lynch
    Office of the Governor
    State House
    107 North Main Street
    Concord, NH 03301
    (603)271-2121
    (603)271-7640 (fax)
    http://www.governor.nh.gov/contact/index.htm

    Commissioner William L. Wrenn
    New Hampshire Department of Corrections
    105 North Main Street
    Concord, NH 03301
    (603)271-5643 (fax)

    Like

Leave a comment