Trials upon trials

On this week’s episode, Erin Sellers and Aaron Hedge went on the air to dive deeper into the Spokane 3 trial, the jury verdict, and the implications of the trial on free speech and protesting.The “Spokane 3” – Jac Archer, Justice Forral and Bajun Mavalwalla II – were charged by the federal government with conspiracy to impede a federal officer by using threats, force or intimidation to stop ICE agents from discharging their duties.The alleged conspiracy charges come from last year’s June 11th protest, where people in the community tried to stop ICE from taking two detained young men – who were in the US legally – to the ICE detention facility in Tacoma.The trial began on Monday, May 18th and ended on Thursday, May 28th, where a predominantly white jury consisting mostly of people who don’t live in Spokane gave all three individuals guilty verdicts.However, this legal process is expected to last longer, as all three individuals filed Rule 29 motions in hopes of acquittal.They also talked about the jury trial for a Salvadoran man accused of assaulting an ICE officer during an arrest last summer in East Wenatchee.Find the stories they talked about (in order) below:The Trial of the Spokane 3: ‘The entire weight of the United States government’ (Erin Sellers, RANGE Media)A shocked city reckons with guilty verdict of Spokane 3 (Aaron Hedge, Daisy Zavala Magaña, and Sandra Rivera, RANGE Media)Tried for a second time (Daisy Zavala Magaña, RANGE Media)Find RANGE's full coverage on the protests and federal trials here.Check out this week's Free RANGE episode on YouTube!