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LOCAL News :: Protest Activity

Bogus Conviction Overturned

An unjust and unfounded ruling on a case dating back to Mayday, 2003 has been overturned.
Judge Colleen Sheahan has reversed her initial ruling on a trespassing case dating back to Mayday, 2003. An appeal to the guilty verdict which had been in the works for several months was heard in court yesterday, and was granted.
At the heart of the case was whether the defendant-me, jack-had been given a chance to leave the grounds of the Chicago Stock Exchange, where a Mayday demonstration was taking place, which I was documenting with a videocamera.

During the original trial, in August, both the footage shot by me and security camera footage used by the prosecution as evidence against me showed clearly that I was not being allowed to leave the plaza at the Stock Exchange, after being asked to, and was asked to leave directly only after being backed into a wall by multiple security gaurds who were significantly larger than me. The footage also showed how I was being singled out as a target, presumably because I had a camera.

As soon as these guards backed off from me a little, I ran toward the nearest exit from the plaza, in an attempt to leave, as I had been asked to. At the orriginal trial, this was interpreted as "evidence of guilt," and through the appeal it was proven that since I was forced to remain in the plaza against my will, the running was evidence only that I was trying to do what I had been asked to do by the building security.

What the overturning of this conviction means is that there is no longer a case the state can point to in Chicago if it wants to go after journalists or anyone else who is simply documenting a demonstration in a manner similar to what I was doing last Mayday. It means that activists now have the upper hand, so to speak, if another case resembling mine-or possibly even one that's not so much like mine-should come up again. It seems like only a small step in the right direction, but laws revolve around precedents, and this is clearly a precedent that now works in the favor of those who choose to fight injustice.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this! It means a lot to me, but I hope it will mean even more the next time they try to arrest someone on some bullshit and they're less able to get away with it because of this conviction being overturned.
 
 

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