Two activists with the group Declare Emergency have been sentenced by a federal judge after acts of vandalism at the National Gallery of Art and the National Archives in support of climate change measures.
Jackson Green, one of the two activists, pleaded guilty to the charge of destruction of National Gallery of Art property for an incident in November 2023 in which he wrote the words “Honor Them” in washable finger paint next to The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial.
He also pleaded guilty to destruction of government property for an incident at the National Archives in February 2024 in which he sprinkled red powder on the case protecting the U.S. Constitution.
Green was sentenced to 18 months in prison at FCI Butner or FCI Morgantown, court documents obtained by Artnet show. He was ordered to pay restitution of $706 to the National Gallery of Art.
The group’s leader Donald Zepeda pleaded guilty to a single charge of destruction of government property for the February 2024 incident but was hit with a steeper sentence of 24 months in prison at FCI Loretto, likely because he filmed an earlier protest in April 2023 in which other activists smeared paint on the case holding Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer.
The men have been collectively ordered to pay restitution of $58,607 to the National Archives at College Park in Maryland and will also be required to submit to two years of supervised release after their time in prison, court documents show.
Joanna Smith, one of the activists who was involved with the Little Dancer incident, was sentenced to 60 days in prison after pleading guilty, as well as two years of supervised release and 150 hours of community service. The other, Timothy Martin, is scheduled for a jury trial slated to start on January 6, 2025.
In remarks to the court, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson—who is presiding over all the cases—noted that there are differences in the cases against Smith and Green which led to her have a leaner sentence. She said Smith was older and is a single offender.
Declare Emergency released a statement before the sentencing, claiming that the judge “berated” Green during his final court appearance “despite lack of evidence that any damage was done” in either incident in which he was involved. The judge called the protests “ineffective” and said “eco-vandalism is not heroic or brave.”
“I have come to realize that in addition to causing direct harm to individuals, destructive protest actions like the ones I carried out can lead to the opposite of our intentions by creating a negative response—turning people off from climate activism and creating further discord,” Green wrote in a statement read to the court.
Carmen Ramos, the chief curatorial and conservation officer at the National Gallery of Art, prepared a victim impact statement for the court’s consideration before the sentencing in which she urged Jackson to consider the government’s role in protecting cultural heritage and the fact that the same protesters had targeted the institution previously with the Degas attack. Judge Jackson was also assigned to that case.
“Again, the impacted gallery had to close. Again, facilities and maintenance workers had to clean up the paint. Again, staff members were devastated and angry,” she said in her statement. “We work so hard to care for, preserve, and display the nation’s collection—held in public trust—only to be the victim of such disrespect and disregard for what all of us value so deeply and protect for future generations.”
