Tim Martin imagining a different imprisonment.
Tim Martin’s sentencing was postponed to give the court time to review evidence pertinent to sentencing that was submitted by Tim’s attorney.
NEW SENTENCING DATE:
- When: October 27, 2025, 2:00pm
- Where: DC District Courthouse, 333 Constitution Ave NW, Washington DC
- Judge: Amy Berman Jackson, Courtroom 4025
- Note: Judge Jackson customarily prohibits bags at sentencing hearings.
His sentencing follows his conviction in April 2025 for “conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States” and damage to an art exhibit. These felony charges related to damaging the pedestal and plexiglass case protecting the Degas sculpture Little Dancer of Fourteen Years at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. The sculpture itself wasn’t damaged, no one was injured, and clean up costs amounted to just over $1,800, but these charges carry a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
The government is asking for an unbelievable 5 years imprisonment. That works out to a day in prison for every dollar of damage.
Joanna Smith acted with Tim. Both cited as the impetus behind the action their concern about the uncertain future for their families due to our governments refusal to act rationally to the fossil fuel crisis. Joanna pled guilty to a felony and was sentenced to 60 days in federal prison—a day in prison for each $30 of damage.
Justice vs Obedience
It isn’t surprising the jury found Tim guilty, because the court stripped jurors of any meaningful decision making authority. Here’s how:
1) The judge expressly prohibited any discussion of whether the felony charge—or its extreme punishment—made any sense.
2) Tim was silenced, forbidden to explain why he acted.
3) The jurors were never told the truth that juries have the power to reject an unjust law and deliver real justice.
Stripped of that knowledge, the jury’s verdict was an act of obedience, not conscience—a checkbox in a system more concerned with punishment than Truth.
The Degas sculpture captures the vulnerability and defiance of a 14-year-old ballet dancer. In April 2023, Tim and Joanna Smith used washable children’s paint to finger-paint on the pedestal and glass case housing the sculpture. Their act was a protest against the hypocrisy in how the nation’s leaders afford elaborate protections to a representation of a child—maintaining a team of conservators and a climate-controlled environment for the artwork—while real children and vulnerable communities are left to face an escalating environmental crisis with little to no protection.