Biography
Joshua Harper is an American animal rights activist who was a coordinator for SHAC USA on the U.S. West Coast and one of the SHAC 7 activists prosecuted in 2006. Harper was convicted alongside Kevin Kjonaas, Jake Conroy, Lauren Gazzola, Darius Fullmer, and Andrew Stepanian under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act and related statutes for their involvement in the campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. At sentencing in September 2006, Harper received a 36-month federal prison sentence for his role in the conspiracy to disrupt the business of HLS and related entities.
March2006 verdict and pre-sentencing status
Page7 names Joshua Harper among the six individual SHAC defendants convicted on March2,2006. It explains that the original group also included JohnMcGee, whose case was dropped, and SHACUSA as an organizational defendant. The article says the six were under house arrest awaiting sentencing at publication. House arrest is not converted to prison time. The expected June sentencing and possible sentence ranges were future projections, not the actual later sentencing or jail-admission dates. The May26,2004 date is described as indictment, not individually proved physical arrest or intake.
The Warrior Wind, issue2, mid-April2006, an advocacy newsletter; source claims and completed custody events are distinguished.
The prosecution’s May 22, 2006 post-trial memorandum dates the superseding SHAC indictment to September 16, 2004 and the jury verdict to March 2, 2006. It records an initial trial opening on June 6, 2005, followed by a defense-requested mistrial after counsel Isabel McGinty became ill, and a new trial beginning February 6, 2006. The brief was signed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles B. McKenna and Ricardo Solano Jr. Its arguments that the evidence was sufficient and that the trial was fair are the prosecution’s position, not a judicial ruling on the defendants’ post-trial motions.
The Warrior Wind’s May 2007 issue reports that Josh Harper was placed in segregation that March, with possession of No Compromise and Green Anarchy journals cited against him. This is the newsletter’s account of his historical prison conditions.
On October 14, 2009, the Third Circuit affirmed the SHAC convictions and sentences, remanding only to establish a restitution payment schedule.
