Joe Welch
Lead defense attorney
A criminal defense attorney who has led this case from the start. He has a record of successfully defending the unjustly accused in the Mike Brown/Ferguson, Occupy, Peabody Coal and anti-genocide protests, and more.
The case
Struck by police. Then charged with assault.
Roughly 100 people were arrested at a peaceful campus protest against the war on Gaza. Two and a half years later, one of them is still being prosecuted: the presidential candidate the students had asked to stand with them.
Background
Students put their futures on the line
On Saturday, April 27, 2024, hundreds of Washington University community members and local activists marched through campus to demand that the private university stop investing in Boeing. The aerospace company was targeted for its decades-long relationship with Israel, including making weapons used in the assault on Gaza.
The students asked Jill Stein, then campaigning as the Green Party’s candidate for president, to stand with them. She did, linking arms with demonstrators who included St. Louis elected officials.
After several hours, police declared the protest on private property illegal and arrested roughly 100 people.
Timeline
How we got here
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A peaceful protest ends in mass arrests
Demonstrators march for several hours and set up an encampment. The protest is widely acknowledged as peaceful until the university orders mass arrests. As police move in, a St. Louis County officer drives a bicycle into Jill Stein and the demonstrators beside her. Stein, 73, is dragged out and arrested along with roughly 100 others.
Source: St. Louis Public Radio
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The video spreads, and Stein is charged
Footage of the bicycle charge circulates widely. Stein is nonetheless charged with assaulting a police officer. Separate video shows officers beating and dragging Southern Illinois University Edwardsville history professor Steve Tamari, who is reportedly hospitalized with broken ribs and a broken hand. Washington University says everyone arrested will be charged with trespassing, and some with resisting arrest and assault.
Sources: video · Washington University statement
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Special prosecutors are named
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that special prosecutors have been named in the assault case against Stein.
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Charges are dropped for everyone else
Two and a half years on, charges against the roughly 100 other people arrested that day have been dropped. The charges against Jill Stein have not.
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The fight back begins
Stein meets with supporters in St. Louis to kick off the campaign against her prosecution, calling the charges preposterous and “an embarrassment to the University and the St. Louis prosecutor’s office.”
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The prosecution formally begins
The case against Jill Stein formally gets under way in St. Louis court. She is accused of assaulting a police officer and trespassing.
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Your move
A petition is calling on Washington University and the St. Louis prosecutor’s office to drop the charges, and a legal defense fund is raising an initial $75,000.
That evening
Prayer on the lawn. Prisoner vans at the curb.
The defense
Who’s fighting this case
Two lawyers have been fighting this battle for nearly two and a half years with minimal compensation.
Stephen Scapelliti
Assisting attorney
An attorney who advised the 2024 campaign and has supported progressive organizations and candidates for decades.
About Jill
A physician who ran to end the war
Jill Stein is a physician and longtime advocate for peace, public health and the environment. She was the Green Party’s candidate for president in 2012, 2016 and 2024.
Her 2024 campaign elevated the demand to end the genocide in Gaza and the US weapons enabling it, forcing the issue to the forefront of the national presidential debate.
“We all have reason to stand up now for our imperiled civil liberties and for a foreign policy that serves we the people, not the war contractors and military machine dragging us into wider war and consuming over half of our congressional budget – while people are hurting for housing, health care and jobs here at home.”
Questions
The case in brief
What is Jill Stein charged with?
Assaulting a police officer and trespassing, stemming from the April 27, 2024 protest at Washington University in St. Louis.
What does the evidence show?
Widely circulated video and a St. Louis Public Radio photograph show a police officer driving a bicycle into Stein and the demonstrators next to her. See the video and photos.
What happened to the other people arrested?
Roughly 100 people were arrested that day. Charges against the others have been dropped. Jill Stein is the only person still being prosecuted.
Why does this matter beyond one case?
The charges threaten the right to free speech and protest for everyone, and they smack of political prosecution. Meanwhile the concerns that drove the 2024 protests have only grown more urgent, and public support for the protesters’ demands has surged.
What is the petition asking for?
That Washington University and the St. Louis prosecutor’s office drop all charges against Jill Stein; restore students and faculty involved in the protest to good standing; acknowledge that opposing genocide is not antisemitic; and divest from Boeing and other corporations arming and profiting from genocide. Read and sign it.
Sign · Give · Share
Opposing genocide is not a crime.
Every name, every dollar and every share raises the cost of this prosecution. Stand with Jill, and with everyone’s right to protest.