DA declines to retry activist after jury deadlock
The Knox County District Attorney General’s Office has declined to seek a retrial against a police reform activist after a jury was deadlocked earlier this month on a charge of assaulting an officer.
Nzinga Amani was convicted by the same jury Sept. 1 of resisting arrest. Both charges stem from a 2022 arrest outside a community meeting the city of Knoxville held to seek input on a new police chief.
The jury couldn’t agree on whether Amani assaulted a police officer behind closed doors after bystanders took video of Amani going limp as an act of nonviolent resistance during the arrest. The officer said the activist spit on him, but Amani – who uses the pronouns they/them – said they coughed while the office was choking them. There is no video of the time Amani was in a holding room with officers.
Prosecutors are letting the assault charge go, Knox County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Sean McDermott told Knox News.
“The State is not seeking a retrial on the assault charge after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict,” McDermott wrote.
Sentencing on the resisting arrest charge is set for Sept. 28.
“This is part of the fight in advocating for justice and change. If you advocate for the rights of exploited people, the state will come after you, there will be repression. So this has not deterred me,” Amani said after the Sept. 1 verdict.
What happened that led to the arrest
In 2021, police issued a warrant against Amani for their participation in a demonstration against the Knoxville Police Department after an officer killed Anthony Thompson Jr. in a high school bathroom. Police said Amani illegally stepped into a roadway, but Amani said they were not told about the warrant or the charge.
In a separate trial, a jury acquitted Amani of the charge of blocking a roadway.
On Jan. 6, 2022, Knox County deputies executed the months-old arrest warrant. Even though Amani had made several previous public appearances as a City Council candidate, police chose to arrest them outside the Knoxville police chief input meeting. Mayor India Kincannon’s staffers had specifically asked officers to stay away from that meeting to allow for an open discussion of policing.
When Amani stepped out of the meeting room at the City-County Building, Knox County Sheriff ’s Office deputies made the arrest.
Amani has filed a federal lawsuit, saying police conspired to make the arrest a public spectacle to “maximize the chilling and humiliating effect” against the reformer.
The lawsuit names two KPD officers – Lt. Jeff Pappas and Christopher Starr – and three Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies – Ronald Chaperon Jr., Joseph Coffey and David Cunningham – as well as the city and county.