Democracy 7 Free to Continue Fight for DC Rights
by Tanya Snyder

March 2001
Volume 38, No. 2

When the Madame Foreperson declared the DC Democracy 7 "not guilty" of Disruption of Congress on February 15, the government attorneys had the same looks on their faces as the Speaker of the House had when that same Democracy 7 stood up and shouted, "Free DC!" in the House of Representatives: not happy.

Not guilty we are, however. And after our first trial ended in a hung jury (split 11-to-1, with only the brave and stalwart Juror #9 standing up for justice), this verdict is a breath of fresh air. Not only to the seven of us, but also to the Statehood movement, which is reassured that a jury of DC residents will go easy on rule-bending when it's for a good cause.

DC Votes No

On July 26, 2000, a group of DC residents sat in the House of Representatives' Visitors' Gallery, watching the debate on the floor below. The members were discussing the DC Appropriations Bill, which is what DC's budget is called when it comes before Congress. No other city in the United States has to surrender its sovereignty to the federal government in the way that DC suffers through each year.

On the Hill, conservative Congresspeople from all over the country decide how we in DC can spend our locally-raised tax dollars. They also attach social riders, over 60 this year, that overturn citizens' approval of medical marijuana for cancer and AIDS patients, eliminate needle exchange programs, diminish access to family planning for poor women, prohibit same-sex adoptions, and much more.

Meanwhile, our non-voting Delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, can do nothing more than to beg her colleagues to leave the District alone and hand out leaflets. In the end, our sole elected representative in Congress is nothing more than a glorified lobbyist.

To protest this anti-democratic ritual, seven of the DC residents in the gallery stood up when it came time for the vote and shouted, "DC votes no! Free DC!"

It was a proud moment. DC finally got a vote on its own budget and laws.

The seven were hauled out right quick by the Capitol Police, were arrested, and charged with Disruption of Congress. We are Bette Hoover, Debby Hanrahan, Karen Szulgit, Steve Donkin, Martin Thomas, Queen Mother ShemaYah, and myself.

The Art of a Political Trial

I've thought a lot about what it means to plead not guilty to something you're proud to have done. Some say that after an act of civil disobedience, the best thing to do is admit that you did it and take the consequences, letting the world know that punishment will not deter you from fighting for justice.

We pled not guilty for several reasons:

The biggest difference between the two trials was that we didn't testify on our own behalf the second time. For the first trial, each of us took the stand, including Martin Thomas, our partner in crime whose case was dropped without explanation before we went to trial. Since we wanted a political trial laden with our message of justice and democracy, each of us took the stand to explain why we did what we did.

Juror #9, who has become our dear friend since he kept the first trial from ending in conviction, advised us not to testify at the second trial. We had admitted we were there and that we did the action, arguing with the government only on our intent. By not testifying the second time around, we left room for reasonable doubt as to whether or not we were even there.

We didn't want to be acquitted on technicalities and we didn't want to deny doing what we did. Our hope was not only to persuade the jury to practice jury nullification, whereby they ignore the law because they don't think it should apply, but to prove that we did not violate the law. The law states that it is illegal to engage in disorderly conduct with the intent to disrupt a session of Congress. We wanted to show the jury that our intent was not to disrupt Congress but to vote the only way we could.

Since we didn't testify, it was up to our lawyers to articulate our message in their opening and closing arguments. Our lawyers ran the gamut from court-appointed attorneys more accustomed to drug cases than civil disobedience, to a corporate lawyer working on technology issues. For the second trial, only one of our lawyers had any experience with any other political cases. Regardless of their experience with this sort of case, they all performed brilliantly and deferred to us to decide how we wanted to handle the trial.

Eleanor Takes the Stand

Our only witness was Eleanor Holmes Norton. Say what you will about Eleanor, but she did us right in the courtroom. She testified that the "commotion" we raised was after all business on the floor was finished and they were about to proceed with an electronic vote. She diminished the prosecutors' fixation on the Speaker's gaveling by saying that he bangs the gavel all the time, usually when the members themselves are being disruptive.

She also spoke eloquently about the undemocratic nature of our situation here in DC. She explained the Appropriations process by which our budget, balanced or not, is "second-guessed" by Congress. She explained her own status as a non-voting delegate with the same power as delegates from other "territories" of the United States like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The best part of Eleanor's testimony, however, was the cross-examination. She spoke to both the government attorney and the judge with more attitude than reverence. She insisted that Congress' proceedings were not interrupted and that no recess was necessary to deal with our "commotion." When the prosecutor said, "So the speaker didn't have to bang the gavel?" Eleanor replied, "Is that your testimony? I didn't say anything about the gavel," and when asked, "Can I get a yes or no answer?" Eleanor said, "No you can't!"

Not only was she an eyewitness more credible than the no-necked cops put on the stand by the government, and not only did she bring to light exactly the political message we were hoping to air, but her ability to challenge the decorum of the court and titillate the jurors helped us get them on our side. The prosecutor's inability to keep cool under Eleanor's fire also helped us by putting them in a bad light.

Fight for Our Rights!

We were prosecuted by the US Attorney's office and our judge was a federally-appointed judge. The court, built upon the structures of DC's colonial status, was stacked against us from the start. If you're going to commit civil disobedience, make sure you'll be entitled to a jury trial. It's not fail-safe, but the odds are a lot better than having a Fed looking down at you from the bench.

As long as Congress continues to treat DC as a colony, they will continue to be met with resistance. Direct action at the Capitol has become an annual tradition, and there will certainly be citizen involvement in the next Appropriations cycle, whether Congress likes it or not. This year, we're hoping to have 51 people, for the 51st state, join together to vote NO on Congressional intervention.

If you'd like to be one of them, or join in any number of other modes of struggle for DC rights, please join Stand Up for Democracy, a multi-partisan group which the Democracy 7 are all part of. Call 202-232-2500 or go to www.standupfordemocracy.org.