White House Trial Ends with Split Verdict:
Hung Jury (Gary Ashbeck) and Not Guilty (Susan Crane)

July 18-21, 2005 Gary Ashbeck and Susan Crane were in Superior Court in D.C. on trial for their part in a White House demonstration last December 29th during the Faith and Resistance Retreat.

The Demonstration: About 70 people from the Holy Innocents' Faith and Resistance Retreat were in front of the White House, reading the names of Iraqi civilians, US and other coalition soldiers who had died during the war. Gary and Susan were standing in front of a pedestrian entrance, which opened in front of them to admit a sandwich delivery man. They walked behind the sandwich man into a small secured area.  An officer from the security booth told the two that he would get an Aide to talk to them. Meanwhile, Secret Service police came in behind them and told Gary and Susan to leave. They replied that the other officer had offered to call an Aide; they were waiting for the Aide to come. After discussion, Gary and Susan were escorted out. Gary put his shoulder into the gate in order to continue the dialogue and wait for the Aide. Further, he explained that he was here because Bush and his coworkers had sent his brother to Iraq . Gary was immediately cuffed and arrested, while Susan, who was not arrested, walked over to join other demonstrators. Later, the police placed Susan under arrest.

The Trial : On Monday, July 18th, the trial started with jury selection in front of Judge Winfield. Prospective jurors came up, one by one, in front of the judge, and answered questions within hearing of the lawyers and defendants. The prosecution asked each person: "Do you have an opinion on the war?" "What is it?" "What do you think of civil protest?" At first we thought that the prosecution was finding a way to select a jury that was pro-war but person after person declared him/herself to be against the Iraqi War. One person said that Karl Rove should be fired. Some said we never should have gotten into the war. A couple had mixed feelings. Our best recollection is that only one person was for the war, and only two had no opinion. It was moving to hear one after another tell the judge that they were against the war. No one objected to civil protest.

Mark Goldstone was representing Gary, and Steve Polin was representing Susan. 

The US attorneys put on two witnesses - police who had been there on December 29. Each had difficulty remembering, and neither testimony had much to do with what happened. One officer couldn't identify the gate at theWhite House where the defendants entered the secured area, and said that Susan had been arrested and put into custody inside the area. The other officer said that there was a sign on the gate limiting access. No such sign exists. Their testimony was plagued with inconsistencies as well as factual errors.

We hoped that Bill Quigley - an attorney active with the SOA protests and law professor in New Orleans - could be our witness. He was at the retreat and was asked to be one of two police liason people for the protest. So he saw all that happened; he is a powerful and credible witness. But even as he was preparing to testify, he left for Haiti hoping to help Gérard Jean-Juste, Catholic Priest and Democracy Activist who had been charged with plotting against state security. We were thankful that Bill could support Fr. Jerry. So, consequently, Liz McAlister testified and Erin Sieber, from Philidephia, showed the video he had made of the protest. It was satisfying that the jury could see the video, hear us read the names of people who had died, and hear us all say in unison, “Our hands are full of blood!”

Gary and Susan also testified, and were able to speak some about the Feast of the Holy Innocents, about nonviolence, about our Jonah House community, and about the war in Iraq and depleted uranium weapons. . 

The judge agreed (against strong objections) to include in the jury instruction a good faith section, that says that if the defendants believed they had a lawful reason to be there, the jury could find them not guilty.  Nevertheless, Gary and Susan were prepared for the maximum sentence of six months.

The case went to the jury Wednesday after lunch, and Thursday afternoon, the jury came back with a split verdict: not guilty for Susan, and hung for Gary.  The judge sent them back, and after half an hour, they returned to court saying they were "hopelessly deadlocked."  The judge declared a mistrial, and Gary will find out next week if they government will retry him. 

As we were leaving our courthouse vigil, the prosecutor said:  "Keep on demonstrating!"

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