Let Jamie Walk
Source: Nick Hatcher via protest organizers
On April 11, about 30 UNC law students and allies marched on the South Building to deliver a petition to the chancellor demanding that Jamie Marsicano (she/they), a third-year law student at UNC and a self-identified “trans femme organizer,” be allowed to walk with them at their May 10 graduation in spite of a 2023 campus ban. Marsicano was one of 23 “Stop Cop City” activists charged with domestic terrorism in early March last year for allegedly taking part in an attack on construction equipment and officers. No officers were injured as a result of the incident.
Wait, a domestic terrorist? Bear with me. The phrase evokes extremely negative feelings, and rightly so: terrorism is associated with violence and death, particularly the deaths of innocents, for political means. The goal of terrorism is to inflict violence and manipulate the public through fear.
In Georgia, however, the state’s domestic terrorism statute is being used as a political tool to target Cop City and other protestors. In 2017, the domestic terrorism statute was expanded from acts intended to kill or injure at least 10 people to include property crimes intended to “alter, change, or coerce the policy of the government” by “intimidation or coercion.” The move was condemned by the ACLU of Georgia and other civil rights groups as a policy that could be weaponized against First Amendment protected speech. Under the new statute, protesters who damage property—which is already a crime under a less serious statute—could face up to 35 years in prison.
More than a year later, Marsicano has yet to be found guilty of the charges. She was arrested at the South River Music Festival not far from the scene of the crime, supposedly because they were wearing black, muddied clothes and had been arrested for protest-related crimes twice before. After a review of the evidence, DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston withdrew her office from the persecution of the case. The state’s Republican Attorney General, Chris Carr, took over the prosecution of the cases within a month of Boston’s announcement, but the charges remain unindicted.
“It is clear to both myself and the Attorney General that we have fundamentally different prosecution philosophies,” Boston stated, stressing her commitment to “only proceed on cases that I believe I can make beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The presumption that the accused is innocent until proven guilty is fundamental to the American justice system. Even so, previous chancellor Kevin Gusckiewicz decided to ban Marsicano from campus in conjunction with the Emergency Evaluation and Action Committee, which is intended to evaluate and respond to student behaviors which could be a “continuing danger for the university community or property.”
According to the friends and classmates of Jamie Marsicano, this is far from the case. A number of people who know Marsicano personally described her not only as harmless to the UNC Law community, but a vital part of it. As a dean’s fellow, Marsicano helped mentor first-year law students and often participated in mutual aid to help those around her. They also served on a student wellness committee, were an Outlaw board member, and acted as president of the school’s National Lawyers Guild chapter.
“We all know that Jamie is not a risk. Jamie is a friend. She's a mentor. She's a fairy godmother. She’s a colleague. She's a study partner. She's a comrade. She's… She is everything, but she is not a threat,” one student said.
One by one, Marsicano’s peers told their stories. Nicholas Hatcher, a third-year, spoke of how just after being released from jail, Jamie went out of her way to send their condolences for the loss of his grandmother. Dev Green, a second-year, told the gathered crowd about how Jamie helped crowdfund the money for much-needed mental healthcare which was not covered by insurance.
“Jamie is the reason that I’m still in law school,” Green said. “I know that when I graduate, that it will be because of Jamie.”
Jamie Marsicano’s influence is not restricted to campus, either. After the event, as the group adjourned for a dance party, I spoke to Maple Osterbrink, a Chapel Hill resident who met Jamie to plan together and hold a sign making event for a Cop City-related protest in the Triangle, which Jamie ultimately could not attend due to their incarceration. Osterbrink is also a veteran of the “Stop Cop City” movement in Atlanta. She said that she had gone to protest the development months before Tortuguita was shot and killed there.
Jamie was “just magnetic, cheerful no matter what,” Osterbrink said.
Overwhelmingly, Marsicano is seen as a guiding light in the UNC Law community and beyond. She has not been found guilty of any crime, the crime that did take place resulted in no injuries, and she has been nothing but kind to her fellow students. With virtually no chance that Marsicano poses any threat to the UNC community, particularly in the span of just a few hours at graduation, what does the administration have to gain from barring her from her own graduation?
As two students from UNC Students for Justice in Palestine pointed out, this is just one example of UNC’s ongoing hostility towards student activists. The two activists pointed out a record of mistreatment from UNC’s administration, including an honor code investigation against them after they were arrested at an off-campus protest for Palestine. UNC SJP is currently pursuing a Title VI complaint against the school for alleged discrimination against Palestinian students and their allies.
“And that's also why this institution and the state of Florida speaker is a friend, right? Because when we organize, when we act out of mutual aid and care for each other, we inspire each other to be our full selves even in spaces that have very old fashioned professional norms. It's a threat to institutions that do not want to change,” one speaker said.
Despite the campus ban, Marsicano has completed the credits she needs to graduate through the inter-institutional program at Duke. She will not, however, be able to walk the stage with her classmates unless the petition’s demands are met. The petition to allow Marsicano to walk the stage has gathered 700 signatures, including 113 from her graduating class. With an average class size of 235, that is likely almost half of Marsicano’s 3L peers. As of the class of 2024’s entrance into the J.D. program, there were 209 students enrolled.
As Sunny Frothingham read from the petition on the steps of the South Building: “This ban tarnishes our commencement, turning it into a political spectacle rather than what it should be: a celebration of all our Carolina law graduates. If this decision is not reversed, the memory of our graduation and our Carolina experience will be forever tainted. Jamie deserves better and so do we.”