Dean Spade Speaks On CeCe McDonald Trial
by Tom Léger on May 2, 2012
http://www.prettyqueer.com/2012/05/02/dean-spade-speaks-on-cece-mcdonald-trial/Dean Spade, legal scholar and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, was in attendance today in Minneapolis at the CeCe McDonald trial. PrettyQueer was able to interview him hours after the announcement that she would be accepting the plea deal that will take her back to prison. Dean's first-hand account is recorded below.
[...]
PQ: Is that twenty months in addition to what she has already done?
DS: It is in addition, yes, so it would be twenty more months from now. And then when that is done, she will have twenty-one more months of some kind of probationary period.
This is going to have a huge impact on her life. She obviously is going to have a conviction on her record, and her schooling has been disrupted, and she's been traumatized by this attack and prosecution. It is so awful. My understanding is that from the perspective of her attorneys this was a legal victory even though it is unjust because this is one of the lowest possible plea deals she could get.
It is obviously not a victory for justice, but one of the better legal options. Of course, there were a lot of mixed feelings and a lot of sadness in the courtroom.
