The jury in the trial of seven protesters who shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in April 2024 returned to deliberations Monday and on Thursday morning they reportedly told the judge they remain deadlocked on two counts.
Disagreement on the jury in the trial of the so-called Golden Gate Seven may go back quite a while. The jurors had been let out on an extended break, returning to deliberations Monday, and after three full days of deliberation they told the judge they can not get to a verdict on two counts, as the Chronicle reports.
The seven were charged with both felony and misdemeanor crimes, including conspiracy and false imprisonment, and the jury is reportedly deadlocked on one count of felony conspiracy and one count of trespassing.
Per the Chronicle, Superior Court Judge Teresa Caffese instructed the jury to return to deliberations Thursday morning, and after an hour, they came back saying they remained deadlocked. It's now unclear where things stand.
A total of 26 protesters took part in the Tax Day "Stop the World for Gaza" demonstration on April 15, 2024, with part of the group forming a human chain and employing the "sleeping dragon" technique — in which their arms were linked inside of plastic tubes, making it more difficult for law enforcement to cut them apart without injury.
A similar protest took place that same day in Oakland, closing down part of I-880, with both groups protesting the United States' support of Israel in the war in Gaza.
A judge dismissed most of the charges against the group, originally known as the GG26 or Golden Gate 26, in November 2024, tossing about 75% of the charges that were mostly misdemeanors.
After some of the protesters pled out, seven went to trial, and protesters and supporters were reportedly gathered at the court to hear a potential verdict this week.
The New York Times last month covered the trial, noting that the prosecution of the protesters was indicative of the city's centrist tack of recent years — when in past decades, in liberal San Francisco, it would have been unthinkable to so aggressively prosecute people peacefully protesting for a cause.
But from the beginning, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has emphasized the widespread impacts that the protest had, halting traffic in both directions on the bridge for four hours, causing children to have to "defecate in bags" and causing drivers to dehydrate in the cars with little or no water.
One woman, Novato resident Regina Schneider, testified at the trial explaining that the protest caused her to miss an important oncology appointment in SF.
She told the Times, "A lot of us are horrified by things that are happening in Gaza, Ukraine, Iran, all around the world. You do not adversely impact the lives of thousands of people to make your point."
This is a developing story.
