Defendants face up to 6 months in prison and a fine for disrupting a speech by ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine.An Orange County jury on Friday found 10 Mohammedan students guilty of misdemeanors for disrupting a 2010 speech by Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren.
In a case that drew national attention, 11 Mohammedan students had stood one by one and interrupted a February 2010 speech by Oren at the University of Caliphornia - Irvine. Oren twice walked off the stage as students shouted "Mass murderer!" and "War criminal!" before being hauled out of the room by campus police. A planned Q&A session after the address was dropped.
The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine, which organized the heckling, was suspended for a year by the school for violating the school's code of conduct, but four months later got the suspension changed to probation on appeal.
About a year afterward, charges were brought against the students for the disruptions. One later got the charges dismissed for pledging to perform community service.
The charges created a fierce debate on campuses over the line between student activism and uncivil behavior. Arguments at the trial largely revolved around two differing views of freedom of speech. District Attorney Dan Wagner describing the students as "censors" who utilized the "heckler's veto."
"This is about freedom of speech," Wagner said in his closing statement. "That's why we're all here."
Defense attorneys described the charges as an attempt to chill free political speech on campus.
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There was crying as the verdict was read in Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson's courtroom. The students showed no visible emotion, although they hugged each afterward. Some also stormed out.
In a case that garnered national attention over free-speech rights, the trial centered on conflicting views of who was being censored. Prosecutors argued that Ambassador Michael Oren was "shut down" when his speech was interrupted by students who took turns shouting preplanned phrases in a crowded UC Irvine ballroom.
Six defense attorneys argued that the students, seven from UC Irvine and three from UC Riverside, were only following the norm of other college protests and were being singled out. A guilty verdict, the defense had said during the trial, could chill student activism and the free exchange of ideas at colleges nationwide.
Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Irvine's Law School, has said that although freedom of speech is not an absolute right, university sanctions were enough for the students. But he also added that he believes criminal sanctions go too far. He told The Times last week that "it makes no sense" to use such resources. "It's so minor."