BREAKING: In 6 days, Steven’s sentence will end and the next phase of our fight against Chevron will begin. An anonymous donor has agreed to match all donations up to $50,000 by midnight of April 25. Our goal is to raise $100,000 total by the day of Steven's release to continue to fend off Chevron’s attacks.
Please help the Free Donziger Team by contributing today. →
Six days from today, Steven’s sentence will end. It has been an honor to represent him for the past four years and counting.
Steven has built one of the most interesting, compelling, and inspirational cases I have had the honor of participating in over my 60-year legal career – and I have represented people such as Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, and Cesar Chavez. As I have said, I believe history will look back and consider Steven to be in the same category as these giants who by sheer force of courage and determination shaped the world for the better.
About one year ago, Steven was waiting for a verdict to find out whether he would face up to six months in federal prison or walk away a free man. What I said then remains true today. We went into the contempt trial before Judge Preska knowing that no justice would be done. There was no jury. She had ruled he could not put on a real defense. She had financial ties to Chevron. And she let Steven be prosecuted by a private Chevron law firm after the government turned down the case.
The unparalleled level of corruption that we have witnessed on behalf of Chevron was absurd then. After almost 1,000 days locked up on a petty charge where the maximum sentence ever imposed on a lawyer was 90 days of home detention, it is even more absurd today.
Another year of Steven's life has been stolen away by Chevron – a year where he could have been enjoying spring break with his son Matthew, taking his wife Laura to dinner for their wedding anniversary, or continuing to do critical human rights and environmental work around the world. Instead, he has been locked up at the hands of our nation’s first private corporate prosecution. It has been extremely difficult for Steven and his family to endure but I can confidently say that Steven has emerged from the experience stronger than ever before. In fact, true to his nature, Steven worked hard during his home detention to successfully win support from literally millions of people around the world.
I am not only Steven’s lawyer. We have become close friends. We spend many delightful hours each week talking either on the phone or in person. We talk law, case strategy, politics, literature, and love.
As I indicated, for decades I have been defending victims of human rights violations. Now it is Steven who needs our help. April 25 is the day that a different kind of fight will begin.
On that day, we will have unique opportunities to further expose Chevron’s massive retaliation campaign against a man who dared to lead the successful fight for the Amazon Indigenous peoples. Justice needs to be served both for Steven and for the affected communities in the Amazon. We also need to ensure that NO other lawyer in this country ever is jailed for their successful human rights advocacy.
For the next six days, an anonymous donor has agreed to match all donations up to $50,000. Please help the Free Donziger Team meet its goal of raising $100,000 by April 25 by contributing $2,500, $1000, $750, $500, $250, $100, $50, $15, or whatever you can today.
Chevron likely will continue to attack Steven in the coming weeks. We need to be prepared for a desperate oil company to reach even deeper into its bag of dirty corporate tricks to try to silence a brave human rights leader. Please donate what you can today.
Thank you,
Marty Garbus |
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Steven Donziger is a U.S. human rights attorney who helped communities in Ecuador’s Amazon win a historic multibillion-dollar pollution judgment against Chevron for the dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste onto Indigenous ancestral lands. Since the judgment issued in 2013, Chevron has used dozens of law firms and 2000 lawyers to carry out a demonization campaign targeting Steven to send a message of intimidation to all environmental advocates.
Donate NOW to help support Steven as he and the Ecuadorian communities continue their fight for corporate accountability, environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and Free Speech. DONATE NOW |
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