Facing a possible mistrial, jurors in the felony vandalism case against five Stanford activists appeared deadlocked Thursday on a conspiracy charge, bringing prosecutors and defense attorneys back to court in one of the most serious prosecutions of pro-Palestinian supporters in the country.
Attorneys were first notified of the deadlock Wednesday afternoon and asked to appear in court Thursday for a status update. Judge Hanley Chew said the jury was split 8–4 on the conspiracy charge, though he did not disclose whether they favored conviction or acquittal. Chew instructed jurors to continue deliberating.
It remained unclear whether the split applied to one, some or all of the defendants. Although the five activists are being tried individually, jurors could reach the same outcome for all or decide differently for each.
As of press time, the jury had not returned a verdict on the conspiracy charge.
On Thursday afternoon, jurors also had begun deliberating on the felony vandalism charge, which carries a potential prison sentence of up to three years and possible restitution. If convicted on both charges, their sentences would run concurrently.
A continued deadlock on the conspiracy or vandalism charges, or both, could result in a total or partial mistrial, leaving the prosecution free to retry the case.
The trial centers on five of the 13 individuals initially arrested in connection with damage to Stanford’s executive offices during a June 2024 protest urging the university to divest from Israel-linked companies.
The five — German Gonzalez, Maya Burke, Taylor McCann, Hunter Taylor Black and Amy Zhai — are all Stanford students or alumni. The others initially arrested either accepted plea deals or were granted diversion programs.
The case stands out from other campus protests nationwide, where similar charges have largely been dropped.
Charges against most protesters arrested during a 2024 demonstration at Columbia University were dismissed, felony cases involving University of Michigan protesters were later dropped, and after arrests at a UCLA Gaza encampment, the Los Angeles city attorney declined to file criminal charges, though many students faced campus discipline.
At the trial, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker urged jurors to set aside politics, while defense attorneys framed the case as protected expression and argued there was insufficient evidence of intent to damage the buildings.
“Free speech is irrelevant to this case,” Baker said. “You don’t get to use free speech to commit crimes.”
Baker portrayed the defendants as a highly organized student group that planned the action in advance, stayed inside the building “as leverage” to push the university on divestment, and vandalized the office.
According to prosecutors, demonstrators caused more than $300,000 in damage to Building 10 by breaking a window to gain entry. Security footage shown at trial was presented by Baker, who pointed out that the defendants covered cameras with various materials and stacked bulky objects and furniture to block doors.
Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender Avi Singh, who represents Gonzalez, argued the students wore protective gear and barricaded offices not to cause damage, but out of fear of being injured by police or campus security. To support that claim, Singh played video footage in which a voice can be heard saying, “Don’t get arrested, b****,” which the defense said came from a law enforcement officer.
Defense attorneys also argued the protesters said they would exit the building voluntarily, which they said showed that the intent of the demonstration was peaceful.
Other witnesses included fellow protester John Richardson, who entered a deferred judgment program last year, and Stanford facilities director Mitch Bousson, who testified about the extent of the damage. The defendants did not testify.
Throughout the trial, attorneys sparred over whether political expression could be considered in evaluating the defendants’ actions.
As early as jury selection, Baker argued that publicly discussing jurors’ views on Israel and Palestine could “poison” the jury pool. Defense attorney Leah Gillis countered that limiting such discussions would chill candor and undermine the goal of an impartial jury.
In closing arguments, Singh responded to the prosecution’s refrain that “dissent is American, vandalism is criminal,” telling jurors the government does not get to decide “what’s American and un-American, dissent and not dissent.”
“You decide whether their dissent is criminal,” he said.
In 2006, when another U.S.-backed war was raging, Nellie McKay released her sophomore album, Pretty Little Head. Among the many gems on the record (including “The Big One,” “Swept Away” and “Lali Est Paresseux”) was “Columbia Is Bleeding.” No stranger to making political statements with her first album, Get Away From Me, McKay had already established her knack for acerbic lyrics on politically-tinged songs like “I Wanna Get Married,” “Inner Peace,” “Work Song” and “Respectable.” With such tongue-in-cheek ditties giving listeners an introduction to McKay’s biting wit, they were technically “primed” to receive a message like the one on “Columbia Is Bleeding.” And that message gave the eponymous school plenty to quake in its very expensive designer boots about. Though, based on the continued use of animals (particularly baboons) in laboratory testing at Columbia, maybe the institution wasn’t affected enough.
For those wondering why Columbia has laboratories where animals can be experimented on in the first place, perhaps they’re forgetting that the university is above all a research one (a trait that played heavily into its role in helping to create the atom bomb). And “research,” unfortunately, always seems to involve animals. Beings who, for whatever reason, still have to be advocated for in terms of making humans believe they should be protected under laws that recognize them as sentient creatures. Which, of course, they are. And yet, it has only been in recent years that more and more scientists are realizing that all manner of creatures previously ignored under this category (particularly insects) have a far more elevated consciousness than once acknowledged. So yes, McKay was (and probably still is) rightfully upset about the cruel and torturous ways that “lab animals” are treated at Columbia. The lid was blown off Columbia’s gross mistreatment of the animals (e.g., eyes being cut out of their heads while they were fully conscious) in their labs starting in 2002, when a veterinarian working onsite became a whistleblower after their repeated reports and complaints went ignored by the “higher powers” at the institution. The frequent and excruciating testing on these animals without so much as an analgesic or anesthetic was just the tip of the iceberg. And yes, blood was spilled over and over again in the name of “research.”
So it is that McKay sardonically sings, “Chris Hougan/She had to run/Last night been a lot of fun/But now it’s French/A little tense/She hadn’t done the reading/There she sat/Hoped to pass/Didn’t think to face the fact that/Oh by gosh/Alas alack/Columbia is bleeding.” Painting the picture of students going about their daily, often frivolous business as unbridled torture went on behind closed doors, McKay continues, “Walkin’ down/Off the bus/Vickie Lucas crossed campus/Was thinkin’ how/She’s made it now/That successful feelin’/Walked by fast/Hailed a cab/No clue that she’d passed a lab/And while she’s sittin’ in lit class/Columbia is bleeding.” In the eighteen years since “Columbia Is Bleeding” was released, the students are very much aware of the kind of bleeding that’s going on outside their walls and, now in recent weeks, inside them. Not just for the animals, but the humans being attacked by police in response to pro-Palestine demonstrations.
The NYPD was summoned to the premises by the university itself, claiming that the students who had set up encampments in solidarity with Palestine were creating “a disruptive environment for everyone.” But the most disruptive environment of all was created by the NYPD’s presence as they cleared out the encampments and occupied buildings with the brute force they’re so “renowned” for. One officer even managed to let his gun go off in the process. Accident or not, bullets “grazing” students is nothing new in the university-based protest scene (though they did more than just graze the four students who were killed at Kent State by the National Guard, solely because they were protesting the injustices of the day: the government’s escalation of the Vietnam War and civil rights).
In the late 60s, which the current situation is being compared to, Richard Nixon commented of the rise in protests on university campuses, “You see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world, going to the greatest universities, and here they are burning up the books, storming around this issue. You name it. Get rid of the war there will be another one.” Sadly, Nixon, “dick” or not, wasn’t wrong about that last assertion (mainly because the same types of warmongering people will always find themselves in power). But his out-of-touch statements are mirrored in one of the evergreen lines from McKay’s song that resonates more than ever. Namely, her sarcastic delivery of: “Everybody knows/Protestors are those/Schmoes who don’t have a life.” With such attitudes from their “elders” lobbied against them, it’s a wonder that anyone in attendance at universities and colleges feels compelled to protest at all—and yet, students, being young and energized as they are, serve as the lone population with far less to lose than any other when it comes to protesting. This, of course, isn’t to say they aren’t putting their own lives on the line when they take that risk. A risk that many of their parents would urge them against. Not just because they don’t want their children to get hurt, but because they’re paying “good money” for them to be there so they can “learn,” not rebel.
Good money that is doled out in addition to the already sizable endowment Columbia is known for. Indeed, as a private university with one of the largest endowments in the United States, Columbia has nonetheless remained hush-hush about where they get said endowments and what they’re funneled back into (in 1968, student protesters found that it was funneled right back into killing the Vietnamese via the Institute for Defense Analyses). Hence, the protesters’ additional call for the university to divest “from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine.” A cute thought, to be sure. But, in case anyone needs reminding, Columbia began as a colonial university—of course it’s going to support a fundamentally colonialist “cause”: the occupation of another, “inferior” country. In part thanks to being a “colony college,” historically, the students that attend it are from a largely privileged and, yes, largely white background. It’s the Ivy fucking League, after all. Diversity has never been its strong suit. Something that tracks in another verse from “Columbia Is Bleeding” that goes, “Didn’t think to face the fact/That while he’s thinking, ‘Man that’s wack’/Columbia is bleeding/Quite a snob/He didn’t tip/Nice guy Rob watched the eclipse/Then looked around, ‘I’ve made it now I’m just so glad to be here’/Made a pass/Got hand slapped/Didn’t think to face the fact/That while he’s mackin’ on that ass/Columbia is bleeding.”
In the present, it would take a total lack of sentience to see that it’s not, and yet, there are many who would prefer to simply ignore all these “unpleasant scuffles” and return to the art of what it really means to be a student: getting drunk and high and sleeping in until the first afternoon class. And, of course, those in power would love, more than anyone, to see things magically “getting back to normal.” Which, in all likelihood, they probably will (even though nothing will ever truly be the same again). The revolution will not be televised, but steamrolled.
McKay concludes the song with the dry declaration, “This is the Ivy League/Columbia is bleeding…/Columbia is bleeding…” So, too, are many other universities in the U.S. right now, with the comparisons to the eruption of student protests in 1968 being the closest Gen Z has ever come to identifying in some way with baby boomers. The latter generation also believed that they were riding a “tidal wave that would just sweep over the world and cleanse it and make everything new” (which is kind of where Hitler was coming from, in his own skewed mind), as writer/former Columbia student James Kunen phrased it in an interview about his response to student protest history repeating. That was his take on how protesting felt in April 1968. In 2024, one wonders if it feels slightly less so. If it’s coming more from a place of being “fresh out of fucks” about trying to placate a genocidal government than it is “we can make the world anew.”
While many remain hopeful about the results that these protests might eventually yield, one can’t help but think of a certain monologue from Alex Garland’s 2020 limited series, Devs. In it, the head of security for a sinister tech company called Amaya finds himself in the position of needing to torture someone who has gotten caught up in the dangerous situation at hand. As an ex-CIA operative, Kenton (Zach Grenier) tells that person, while giving him a moment to collect his breath after waterboarding him, “My problem is I have to contain a very complex situation, but the situation is refusing to be contained. In fact, it’s cascading…” Sounds a lot like the protests that are going on now. And yet, perhaps like the government, Kenton insists, “But I’m not panicking, I’ll tell you why.” The why, for him, is: “Long ago… a popular uprising had started on mainland China. The focus point was Beijing. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators had occupied Tiananmen Square. Wouldn’t fucking budge. And at a certain point, my bureau chief called us into his office and said China was finished. Whatever the government did wouldn’t make a difference; the protests would spread across the country, the system would collapse. The tipping point was reached, the cascade was unstoppable. You know what happened next? The Chinese government sent in soldiers and tanks to Tiananmen Square, shot everybody they could, took the revolution by the neck and crushed the fucking life out of it.”
At the moment, that feels like the more probable result of these protests than any actual ceasefire, with blood, blood and still more blood spilling in universities across the U.S. as they try to make warmongers see reason. But you know what they say about trying to reason with crazy people: you can’t.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) — Pro-Palestinian protesters removed the American flag from UNC’s quad on Tuesday afternoon and replaced it with the Palestinian one in what was the latest disruptive incident on campus.
Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts responded by personally walking out to the quad and helping to restore the U.S. flag to its prominent position on campus to chants from supporters of “USA. – USA.”
However, not long after the U.S. flag had been restored, it came down again. This time it was folded into its traditional triangle shape and taken away for safe keeping.
The flag pole on UNC’s quad was then left empty and many of the protesters who had gathered around the area dispersed.
UNC announced on Tuesday afternoon that classes and other “mandatory operations” were suspended for the day.
At about 5:30 a.m., protesters were warned they had to vacate by 6 a.m. or they may face arrest and other consequences. UNC officials previously told protesters that pitching tents on campus violated university policy.
In a statement released Tuesday by UNC Interim Chancellor Roberts and Provost Clemen before police began removing protesters, they said if protesters fail to vacate the area, it could result in consequences. This includes possible arrest, suspension from campus and expulsion from the university, which may prevent students from graduating.
Police detained 30 people who refused to leave, according to UNC officials. Protesters then attempted to block the UNC Police vehicles by standing in front of them and throwing items at officers.
Some of those arrested were transferred by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to the detention center.
The encampment in Polk Place was cleared in 45 minutes.
After the area was cleared, UNC officials said protestors attempted to enter South Building. They refused to comply with requests from facilities and UNC police.
One Duke student who was detained described her arrest.
“(The police) were very violent, very rough,” she said. “I’m not a big person, and I had two grown men grab me very viciously…it was not kindly done.”
According to the student, she was charged with a second-degree misdemeanor for trespassing.
In the statement from Roberts and Clemens, it read:
“For the last several months, we have spoken regularly and respectfully with the demonstrators on our campus, consistently supporting their right to assemble and express their views. We have also clearly communicated the University’s long-standing policies on the use of shared public spaces. We have been clear that students and community members can assemble and make their voices heard, but University policies must be followed.
During events in recent weeks, the student demonstrators abided by our policies. That changed Sunday evening when protesters – including outside activists – backtracked on their commitment to comply with these policies, including trespassing into classroom buildings overnight. This group has now made it clear they will no longer even consider our requests to abide by University policies and have ended our attempts at constructive dialogue.
We must consider the safety of all of our students, faculty and staff, as well as visitors to this campus. Our students are preparing for final exams and end-of-year activities, including graduation, and we will continue to promote an educational environment where they can do so safely and without disruption.”
On Monday, ABC11 spoke with Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman about the potential legal fallout from the intensifying protests.
“That is where we could get into sort of a higher level debate that actually could find its way into the courtroom where we’re debating whether or not the policy being enforced is a reasonable infringement on First Amendment rights,” he said.
Nieman did say that protesters would be prosecuted by his office – should they find the law was fairly and appropriately applied in the course of any potential arrests that are made.
“I have heard that there are some offices that have made sort of more categorical statements that they just aren’t interested in prosecuting protest-related offenses,” he said. “And that’s just not our view of it. We would look at a case-by-case basis. And if it meets that standard, then we would go forward with a prosecution.”
Pro-Palestinian supporters continue to organize a protest encampment on the campus of Columbia University on April 26, 2024, in New York City. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Negotiations between Columbia University administrators and members of an ongoing encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus have come to a standstill. In a statement issued Monday morning, Columbia president Minouche Shafik said that academic leaders had engaged in “constructive dialogue” with student organizers on how to proceed, but that those talks have stalled. “Regretfully, we were not able to come to an agreement,” she said.
Members of the student-led encampment on the university’s lawn were notified by school administrators that they had until 2 p.m. Monday to “voluntarily leave” or risk interim suspension. By the time the deadline arrived, the majority of the protesters defied the order and were joined by hundreds more who encircled the encampment in an attempt to protect it.
The campus is still reeling from the school’s controversial move to allow the NYPD to break up the encampment and arrest more than a hundred students on April 18 — though the demonstration quickly reformed. Though Shafik urged those now in the encampment to “voluntarily disperse,” she made no reference in her universitywide statement about forcing them to do so or whether law enforcement would be involved. “We are consulting with a broader group in our community to explore alternative internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible,” she said.
Shafik said Columbia’s main objective was to come to an agreement over disbanding the encampment as well as getting organizers to agree to follow school rules for future demonstrations. The president made it clear that the university has no plans to financially divest from Israel, the main request of the demonstrators, but said both sides put forward “robust and thoughtful offers and worked in good faith to reach common ground.”
She expressed particular concern about Columbia’s ability to hold its 2024 commencement. The University of Southern California recently announced that it was canceling its main schoolwide commencement ceremony following the backlash to its decision to bar Asna Tabassum, the valedictorian, from giving her planned speech due to pushback from pro-Israel groups.
“We also do not want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration. Please recall that many in this graduating class did not get a celebration when graduating from high school because of the pandemic, and many of them are the first in their families to earn a University degree. We owe it to all of our graduates and their loved ones to honor their achievement,” Shafik said.
In the weeks since student organizers began their protest on Columbia’s campus, like-minded demonstrations have emerged on campuses across the country. Law enforcement has arrested hundreds of students at Emory University, Virginia Tech, the University of Texas at Austin, and New York University, among others. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have descended upon Columbia University in the wake of the unrest. Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnsoncalled for Shafik’s resignation among boos from assembled students. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who previously called out the police response to Columbia’s encampment, met with organizers last week during a visit to the campus.
Students at eight universities joined together to set up encampments Thursday morning at George Washington University to protest the war in Gaza and demand their universities divest from Israel.
“Six months have passed and the United States government and the universities across the nation have not only failed to take any action to end this genocide, but are actively enabling it,” a news release from the DC, Maryland, and Virginia Coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine reads. “Multiple avenues have been explored to pressure universities to divest from the apartheid state of Israel, but all efforts have been met with repression and the silencing of multiple pro-Palestine student organizers and their respective organizations.
American University, Gallaudet University, George Mason University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Howard University, the University of Maryland and University of Maryland, Baltimore County comprise the eight-school coalition. The coalition’s demands are for each university to divest from “any business that aids the ongoing genocide of Palestinians,” that the schools protect “all speech in support of Palestine … [and drop] all charges against pro-Palestine student organizers,” and that the schools end all academic partnerships and study-abroad programs with “Zionist institutions.”
Ellen M. Granberg, president of George Washington University, and Christopher Alan Bracey, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said in a statement on Thursday that they had called on police to remove the encampments because they were an “unauthorized use of university space at this location and violated several university policies.”
“Occupying campus grounds, establishing outdoor encampments, and blocking access to buildings create safety concerns and can disrupt learning and study, especially during this critical final exam period,” part of the statement reads. “Such activities are inconsistent with the university’s mission, values, and commitment to providing a safe environment for all students and employees.”
The students have until 7 p.m. local time to move their tents off campus.
None of the other universities immediately responded to our request for comment.
Meanwhile, at Emory University in Atlanta, 15 protesters opposing the war in Gaza and the “Cop City” police training center were arrested Thursday, according to WRDW. Emory University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Students across the nation have been protesting the war in Gaza, which has now killed more than 34,000 people. On Wednesday, Harvard students set up encampments. More than 100 protesters were arrested last week at Columbia University. This week, protesters have been arrested at New York University, Yale University, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, the University of Minnesota and Ohio State University.
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Last week, the NYPD arrived on Columbia University’s campus and arrested students involved in a pro-Palestine encampment. Earlier this week, police officers arrested demonstrators at Yale and the University of Minnesota. And on Wednesday, law enforcement broke up protests at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California.
On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters gathered on UT Austin’s campus as part of a scheduled class walkout by the school’s chapter of the Palestine Solidarity Committee. The event called for participants to occupy the university’s South Lawn as they demanded the administration divest from companies linked to Israel. Ahead of the planned protest, school officials notified the event organizers that their event was not allowed and that participants might be subject to arrest and suspensions.
Footage from KXAN, a local NBC affiliate, shows Texas state troopers in riot gear arresting protesters after giving the crowd a warning to disperse. The Texas Tribune reports that at least ten people were arrested during the standoff.
A similar scene unfolded at the University of Southern California, where more than a hundred protesters took part in a pro-Palestine encampment of the university’s Alumni Park. During the protest, organized by the school’s Divest From Death coalition, students frequently picked up and moved their tents so they wouldn’t run afoul of the school’s rule barring on-campus camping, per the Los Angeles Times. USC has recently been at the center of controversy after barring the 2024 class valedictorian from speaking following criticism of one of her social-media posts by pro-Israel groups. In footage from the Times, officers from the university’s department of public safety can be seen grappling with protesters and even pulling out batons.
One person was detained by law enforcement, but was reportedly let go after students surrounded the car they were being transported in.
Also Wednesday, pro-Palestine students whose organization had been banned established a small encampment at Harvard, setting up a likely clash with administrators.
