Waters gets 6 years for UW firebombing, Seattle PI

"...A key to Wednesday's sentencing hearing in Tacoma was whether actions of Waters, who acted as a lookout and provided logistics support to her ELF compatriots, rose to the level of terrorism.

...Waters' attorney, Neil Fox, sought to scrutinize the government's definition of terrorist. And he asked the court to sentence his client to no more than 18 months behind bars.

"The court should be cognizant of the misuse of the term 'terrorism.' The term clearly has been manipulated by those seeking to advance their own political agendas," Fox said in a filing with the court. "It is the scare word of the day, and the consequences of the expansion of the use of the term to brand defendants can lead to grave injustice."

Fox argued that Waters should not be subjected to the terrorism enhancement, which could add decades to her sentence, because the jury had not found her guilty of conspiring with the other four defendants in the case. Waters "was not part of the broader ELF/ALF conspiracy," Fox said in court filings.

And he claimed his client, who continues to maintain her innocence, had no motivation or intent to intimidate anyone in the alleged arson attack. "There is no evidence that she chose the target or that she even knew about or cared about" the botanical research taking place there.

The government scoffed at that contention, while acknowledging that her actions didn't rise to the level of flying a plane into the side of New York City's World Trade Center.

"Although Waters' crime is substantively different from, say, the attacks of September 11, 2001 -- a fact that is recognized in the United States' recommendation of a sentence far below" what could have been asked for, it's clear that it still meets the definition of terrorism, prosecutors said in court filings."