Thread by @socialistdogmom

good morning everyone except jason kessler*!

*albemarle county commonwealth’s attorney robert tracci’s good morning is contingent upon the vigor with which he performs his damn job today and may be revoked later.

i woke up in a panic from a nightmare that another one of my favorite nazi was having a hearing at the same time in another courtroom today. nothing will quiet that fear except quickly reading the full day's docket for both county & city courts.

perjury can be difficult to prosecute, but in this case there is video evidence of the incident in question about which kessler gave a false statement to the magistrate.

c-ville.com/kessler-perjur…

😂🤣😂🤣
see you in court, bud.

got a brand new notebook and a whole pocket full of pens. leaving my phone in the communal tub. if convicted, he faces a $2500 fine and one to ten uses.
see you on the other side...

breaking for lunch until 1:15! jury selection took three hours. of the 13 selected jurors: 3 are white women, 7 are white men, 3 are non-white men.

the bulk of hallahan’s (kessler’s attorney) questions for potential jurors were related to their prior familiarity with kessler’s name. the judge ruled a number of times, citing taylor v commonwealth, that prior knowledge of a defendant isn’t sufficient to exclude a juror.

hallahan registered his displeasure a number of times, saying “in a county of 100,000 people we could keep going until we find people who don’t know him,” but higgins didn’t feel that was necessary.

of note from the three hour voir dire ordeal, during a particularly aggressive line of questioning, the judge & the CA had some objections. hallahan cut in, “the court is obstructing! the commonwealth is obstructing me” from asking questions about the juror’s political beliefs

judge higgins has less patience for this kind of hostility & hot air than a lot of the others in our courts. she cautioned him sharply, “i would be careful when accusing the court of obstructing.”
i can’t wait to see elmer argue a case in front of her.

one juror (not selected) works in the art dept at UVA. hallahan hammered him for quite some time about a statement against white supremacy on the department website, as though he’d personally attacked jason kessler by virtue of his name appearing on his own dept’s site 🤷‍♀️

after determining that the man was aware jason kessler produces online content and he has chosen not to consume it, hallahan insists this choice is indicative of an entrenched bias against his client. be warned, guys: choosing not to read kessler’s blog is an attack against him!

hallahan insists this man is “clearly anti-kessler” because his faculty bio appears on a UVA dept website that at some point also had an anti-white supremacy message. it was this line of questioning that led him to accuse the court of obstruction.

the judge disagreed, saying his name appearing on the site doesn’t mean he visits it or authors it. does this even need to be said?! she disagrees that the juror was being evasive, as hallahan alleged. she did not strike the juror - he was eliminated by lot later in the process.

peeled these off the signs about the jackson statue on my way back in.

at 5:30, only 3 of the 13 jurors were in favor of going home and picking up tomorrow. we’ll return at 7 for a decision on a motion to strike, jury instructions, and closing arguments. then... deliberation. gonna be a late one. i think jurors are worried about the snow tonight/tom

my dogs were grateful for the dinner break. headed back in now. hopeful that the jury’s eagerness to get this over with means they are gonna return a quick guilty verdict!

judge higgins granted the defense’s motion to strike. he walked free. the jury never even got a chance to deliberate.

i’m gonna flesh this out a little bit later. i went straight from court to a dsa chapter meeting in progress - so grateful for that palate cleanser. this decision was so a reminder of so much of what’s wrong, but we’re building a better world goddamnit. 🌹