SAN FRANCISCO, US: A judge declared a mistrial Friday in the case of five current and former Stanford University students charged after pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, when they barricaded themselves inside the university president and provost executive offices.
The trial in Santa Clara County was a rare instance of demonstrators facing felony charges from protests over the Israel-Hamas war that roiled campuses across the country. The two sides argued over free speech, lawful dissent and crime during the three-week proceedings.
The jury voted 9 to 3 to convict on a felony charge of vandalism and 8 to 4 to convict on a felony charge of conspiracy to trespass. After deliberating for five days, jurors said they could not reach a verdict.
Judge Hanley Chew asked each one if more time deliberating would help break the impasse, and all answered, “No.”
“It appears that this jury is hopelessly deadlocked, and I’m now declaring a mistrial in counts one and two,” Chen said. He then dismissed the jurors.
Demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the offices for several hours on June 5, 2024, the last day of spring classes at the university.
Prosecutors said the defendants spray-painted the building, broke windows and furniture, disabled security cameras and splattered a red liquid described as fake blood on items throughout the offices.
Defense attorneys said the protest was protected speech and there was insufficient evidence of an intent to damage the property. They also said the students wore protective gear and barricaded the offices out of fear of being injured by police and campus security.
If convicted, the defendants would have faced up to three years in prison and been obligated to pay restitution of over $300,000.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said he would pursue a new trial.
“This case is about a group of people who destroyed someone else’s property and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage,” Rosen said in a statement. “That is against the law and that is why we will retry the case.”
As the mistrial was announced, the students, some wearing kaffiyehs, sat on a bench in the courtroom and did not show a visible reaction.
“The District Attorney’s Office had Stanford University supporting them and other multibillion-dollar institutions behind them, and even then the district attorney was unable to convict us,” Germán González, who was a sophomore at Stanford when he was arrested, told The Associated Press by phone later. “No matter what happens, we will continue to fight tooth and nail for as long as possible, because at the end of the day, this is for Palestine.”
Authorities initially arrested and charged 12 people in the case, but one pleaded no contest under an agreement that allows some young people to have their cases dismissed and records sealed if they successfully complete probation.
He testified for the prosecution, leading to a grand jury indictment of the others in October of the others. Six of those accepted pretrial plea deals or diversion programs, and the remaining five pleaded not guilty and sought a jury trial.
Protests sprung up on campuses across the country over the Israel-Hamas conflict, with students setting up camps and demanding their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that support its war efforts against Hamas.
About 3,200 people were arrested in 2024 nationwide. While some colleges ended demonstrations by striking deals with students or simply waited them out, others called in police. Most criminal charges were ultimately dismissed.
Mistrial declared in the case of Stanford students charged after pro-Palestinian protests in 2024
https://arab.news/myetf
Mistrial declared in the case of Stanford students charged after pro-Palestinian protests in 2024
- Five students faced trial over vandalism and trespassing charges
- After deliberating for five days, jurors said they could not reach a verdict
Pete Hegseth: Trump’s Iran war attack dog
- The war in War is the fifth major international US military intervention under Pentagon chief Hegseth
- He is a decorated infantry officer who spent more than 18 years in the National Guard
WASHINGTO: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, a self-declared opponent of “undefined wars” and regime change, is now going on the offensive against critics of President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran, while unapologetically backing the conflict.
Critics say the objectives of the Iran war are ill defined, the justification is frequently shifting, the timeline is open-ended: It is the kind of conflict Hegseth fought in — and denounced — but is now defending.
“America is winning — decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,” Hegseth said Wednesday. “We have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities.”
“To the media outlets and political left screaming endless wars: Stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” he said two days earlier. “Our generation knows better, and so does this president.”
The war is the fifth major international US military intervention under Hegseth, following strikes on Yemeni rebels, an operation targeting Iranian nuclear sites, attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats, and a raid to seize Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
While US personnel were wounded in the Maduro raid, the operations Hegseth has overseen have been largely bloodless on the American side, until now: Six US troops have been killed so far during the Iran war.
Hegseth, a 45-year-old former Fox News co-host, criticized the media this week for highlighting negative developments in the war, claiming that “the fake news misses” the overall picture of US success.
“We’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground... But when a few drones get through, or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news,” Hegseth said, accusing the media of wanting “to make the president look bad.”
- ‘Peace is our goal’ -
A decorated infantry officer who spent more than 18 years in the National Guard and served in combat, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, Hegseth has nonetheless been plagued by scandals.
He came under fire during his confirmation process over alleged financial mismanagement at veterans’ nonprofits where he previously worked, as well as reports of excessive drinking and allegations of sexually assaulting a woman in California.
A few months after he took office as defense secretary, Hegseth was hit by a scandal related to the strikes on Yemen.
The Atlantic magazine revealed that its editor in chief had been inadvertently included in a Signal chat in which Hegseth and other officials discussed the imminent operation, with the Pentagon chief sending messages on the timing of strikes hours before they happened.
Another controversy stemmed from a September 2 attack on an alleged drug-smuggling boat. After the initial strike left survivors, a follow-up strike killed two of them — what one lawmaker said amounted to an attack on “shipwrecked sailors.”
In another contentious move under Hegseth, a number of senior military personnel, including the top-ranking general Charles “CQ” Brown, have been fired, often with little or no public explanation.
Hegseth said in a December speech that the Pentagon “will not be distracted by democracy-building interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing and feckless nation building.”
“We will deter war. We will advance our interests. We will defend our people. Peace is our goal,” he told the Reagan National Defense Forum.
Less than three months later, the United States was at war with Iran, a conflict that has since expanded to other countries in the Middle East.
“For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged a savage, one-sided war against America,” Hegseth said this week.
“We didn’t start this war,” he said. “But under President Trump, we are finishing it.”
