Judge sentences Cecily McMillan to 90 days - Less than expected...never should've been charged

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Last edited Mon May 19, 2014, 11:43 AM - Edit history (1)

Gawker ‏@Gawker 7m
Occupy Wall Street protester Cecily McMillan sentenced to 90 days http://gaw.kr/Yc8H3gD #justice4cecily


Judge Ronald Zweibel of the New York Supreme Court has just sentenced Occupy Wall Street protester Cecily McMillan to 90 days at Rikers Island, including time served, with 5 years probation, according to reports from Twitter and a Livestream outside the courtroom.

McMillan was convicted earlier this month of assaulting a police officer following a demonstration on March 17, 2012. She had elbowed her arresting officer when, she says, he grabbed her breast in what some people characterize as outright police brutality.

McMillan was facing up to seven years in prison for the incident. That maximum sentence was considered unduly harsh by many of observers, among them some of the jurors at her trial, who wrote to the judge to plead for leniency. Apparently, their pleas worked, sort of. McMillan herself told interviewers she was expecting 2 years.


read: http://gawker.com/occupy-wall-street-protester-cecily-mcmillan-sentenced-1578235714?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Statement from #Justice4Cecily

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. As you say, she never should have been charged, but given

that she was, and that the jury was bamboozled into convicting her, the judge did a good service in reducing the sentence down. Did she already have the 90 days if one counts her 'time served'?

[Mz Pip]

2. Better outcome than I imagined.

I agree she never should have been charged andconsidering the juries letters I'm sort of surprised there wasn't one who didn't vote for acquittal. This would have been a good case for jury nullification.

[catnhatnh]

3. The jail time is how they threaten you....

...the probation is how they silence you. If they can silence a nationally-known voice for 5 years at the cost of a (purported) black eye they've had a good day.

[msanthrope]

4. Given the video of the incident, her attorney did a great job. nt