THE DISTRICT

2 Acquitted of Disrupting Congress

A spirited outburst from two D.C. statehood activists while sitting in the spectators' gallery in the House of Representatives was not a crime, a Superior Court jury said yesterday.

Anise Jenkins and Karen Szulgit were acquitted of disrupting Congress by briefly shouting at lawmakers July 29 after the House rejected a proposal to allow marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes within the District.

The plan, known as Initiative 59, was approved by D.C. voters in 1998, but it has been blocked by Congress.

"Shame, shame, the capital of the nation is the last plantation," Jenkins and Szulgit chanted. "Free D.C.! Free D.C.!"

The pair, both longtime activists for District statehood, were pulled from the gallery by a doorkeeper and arrested by police. If convicted of the misdemeanor, they could have been sentenced to up to six months in prison and fined $500.

In the three-day trial, prosecutor Anthony Alexis pointed out that strict rules--more stringent than those that apply to lawmakers--govern spectator behavior in Congress. Defense attorneys Mark Goldstone and Kenneth Page portrayed the chant as a spontaneous outburst within First Amendment rights.

The jury took less than an hour to return a not-guilty verdict.

Read this article in The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/03/01/crime-38/e69668db-3137-4d17-b229-244ce8de348c/