“Eager for closure”: Nearing a verdict in the Irvine 11 trial

Supporters of UCIrvine 11 protesting the suppression and silencing of voices for Palestine

by nora on Fri, 09/16/2011

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/nora/eager-closure-nearing-verdict-irvine-11-trial

The defense team for the Irvine 11 rested their case on Thursday afternoon at the Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, after nearly a dozen pieces of evidence ­ ranging from emails to a video made by The Electronic Intifada ­ were offered to the jury during the last two weeks of trial hearings.

The students from UC Irvine and UC Riverside, who nonviolently protested a speech given by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren in February 2010, are being charged by the Orange County District Attorney’s office with two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to disrupt a meeting and disruption of a meeting. If convicted, each student could face up to a year in jail for each charge.

Several witnesses concluded their testimonies on Thursday, including a professor of sociology at UCLA who is an expert on audience behavior during speeches, and a former student at UC Irvine who witnessed an on-campus demonstration by college Republicans attempting to shut down a speech by a Muslim activist in 2001.

Southern California: Irvine 11 trial begins after a week of jury selection

Demonstrating support for the Irvine 11

Nora Barrows-Friedman, Electronic Intifada

09/07/2011

Following a week of selections from a pool of nearly 400 potential jurors, opening arguments in the Irvine 11 trial formally begin Wednesday in Orange County, California.

Defense attorneys for the group of Muslim students from UC Irvine and UC Riverside who interrupted a speech by an Israeli official in February 2010 will argue against the “selective and discriminatory” nature of the Orange County Disctrict Attorney’s office’s year-long attacks and investigations that could result in up to two years in jail for each student on criminal misdemeanor charges.

I attended some of the jury selection process in the OC courthouse last week, and will again be on hand throughout the trial to update our readers on the ongoing process during the next few weeks and after the trial ends on 23 September with a final verdict.