Court upholds ‘terrorism’ sentencing of pipeline saboteur

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the eight-year prison sentence given to an environmental activist who tried to sabotaged the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Jessica Reznicek pleaded guilty in June 2021 to a charge of conspiracy to damage an energy facility for vandalizing construction sites on the pipeline in 2016 and 2017. Iowa U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger included a terrorism enhancement in her sentencing. The Des Moines Register reports that Reznicek appealed that enhancement. But the appeals court found that “any error was harmless” in Ebinger’s sentencing because the judge had noted she would have imposed it regardless of the terrorism enhancement.