Editorial: A rock in a hard place

Monday, March 27, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of two Nevadans in the theft of American Indian rock art panels because, the judges said, the government failed to prove the petroglyphs' monetary value.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling said that although "it is clear that (the two men) stole the petroglyphs" from a national forest, prosecutors did not provide evidence that the artifact's market value supported a felony conviction.

The ruling overturned the June 2004 federal court convictions of John Ligon, 41, of Reno, and Carroll Mizell, 45, of Van Nuys, Calif., who had admitted during the trial that they had removed three boulders etched with figures of an archer and bighorn sheep from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest near Reno.

A U.S. Forest Service archaeologist had testified that the 1,000-year-old panels had an archaeological value of about $8,000. But that is not the same as market value, which must exceed $1,000 to constitute a felony, 9th Circuit Court Judge William Fletcher wrote in the ruling filed Wednesday.

The government had an opinion from an Arizona art expert who said the panels were worth about $1,500 before damage from the extraction dropped the value to about $900. But the expert wasn't called to testify. Fletcher wrote that although the theft occurred, "it is equally clear that the petroglyphs had a market value ... But the government did not introduce that report into evidence."

We would never want to see anyone falsely convicted of a crime. But it is a shame this particular incident - in which the men admitted to taking the artifacts - happened at all. People who find such artifacts should know better than to take them. When these priceless cultural sites are violated, we all lose.