6 insurrection, more than 330 have pleaded guilty to receive lesser sentences, mostly misdemeanors punishable by no more than a year. Of the roughly 850 people charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. And they're getting two months, three months, six months," Sellers said. "The fact is you have people who stormed the Capitol, who led to the death of law enforcement, who tried to overturn an election and fracture democracy. Sellers called the sentence "beyond the pale." Sumter police said it would be inappropriate to comment, given the potential for additional action. Prosecutors did not respond to interview requests. Rosado said Judge Kirk Griffin did not allow her to explain the distinction, and the possibility of a much stiffer penalty, to the jury. State law defines breachers of the peace as any disturbers, "dangerous and disorderly persons" or people who utter "menaces or threatening speeches." But prosecutors presented the charge as a "high and aggravated" crime, which carries up to 10 years imprisonment. Her legal team was "elated" when jurors found her guilty only of breaching the peace, punishable by no more than a $500 fine and 30 days in jail, investigator Tony Kennedy recalled. The jury acquitted Martin of inciting a riot and reached no verdict on whether she threatened officers' lives. And some of y'all gon' be hurting," Martin told officers. Martin used stronger language days later. Police donned riot gear and discussed using tear gas before letting the crowd disperse. Videos from show Martin chanting "No justice, no peace," in an officer's face. Shared with the AP, they don't show her laying hands on any officers. In court, prosecutors presented police body camera recordings including snippets of those demonstrations. When she took to the streets, she carried grief over her family's past. Martin moved with her four younger children to Sumter, South Carolina, from Iowa in spring 2020 and was "ready to go and protest" after the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd sparked a nationwide movement that year, her sister said.īut Martin also had someone else on her mind: In 2016, Sumter police fatally shot her brother-in-law 19 times when officers said he fired a gun after a chase in a stolen car. "She's a dark-skinned Black woman who is unapologetically Black and radical." "She's in jail because she talked in America," said Sybil Dione Rosado, her trial attorney. Civil rights attorney and former state lawmaker Bakari Sellers will tell the judge on Sept. Her lawyers have been pushing for a lesser sentence amid increasing concerns about her health and that of her baby, due in November.Īdvocates with Black Voters Matter have been circulating a petition calling for her release. Raising questions about free speech and equal justice, Brittany Martin, 34, was found guilty this spring of breaching the peace in a high and aggravated manner over comments she made to police. A pregnant Black activist serving four years in prison for her behavior at racial justice protests will have her sentence reconsidered as she struggles to reach her due date behind bars.
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