Juries aren’t swayed by defenses in Capitol riot trials

WASHINGTON (AP) — A retired New York police officer told a jury that he was acting in self-defense when he tackled a police officer and grabbed his gas mask during the Jan. 6 riot.

Jurors deliberated for less than three hours before convicting the 20-year NYPD veteran, Thomas Webster, of all six counts in his indictment.

Webster was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be tried on an assault charge and the first to present a jury with a self-defense argument. His conviction proved to be a bellwether for the dozens of trials that followed.

Finding a viable trial defense hasn’t been easy for rioters who stormed the Capitol. Of the nearly 100 riot defendants who have elected to a trial by jury, none has been fully acquitted.

Many have said they were swept up in the moment. Some have tried to shift the blame for their actions to former President Donald Trump and his lies about a stolen election. Others have claimed they were trying to protect themselves from overzealous police officers.

In Webster’s case, prosecutors repeatedly showed frame-by-frame footage of him assaulting a Metropolitan Police Department officer with a metal flagpole, tackling him to the ground and trying to rip off his gas mask.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-parsely-url=«https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parsely.com%2Fv2%2Frelated%3Fapikey%3Dapnews.com%26url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fcapitol-riot-inside-courthouse-c3d738fd50972a95ef8a19c64956195c%26limit%3D9%26respect_empty_results%3D1%26sort%3D_score%26pub_date_start%3D2024-07-23%26exclude%3Dsection%3APress%20Releases%26exclude%3Dtags%3ACelebrity%20Birthdays» data-parsely-title=«Related Stories»