Judge Says State Violated Cop City Protester’s Rights, Dismisses Terror Charge

A Georgia judge has dismissed a state domestic terrorism charge against Cop City protestor Jamie Marsicano, but they and dozens of others still face racketeering charges.

Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams ruled that the prosecution’s delays violated Marsicano’s due process rights and their right to a speedy trial. In March 2023, law enforcement officers arrested close to two dozen protesters, including Marsicano, at a Stop Cop City music festival. The festival was held in Weelaunee Forest, in the area where the City of Atlanta was building the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, known as Cop City, a police training base.

Marsicano spent more than two weeks in jail and was then released on a $25,000 bond. All of the protesters were charged with domestic terrorism, but, more than two years later, none have been indicted.

“Since Defendant’s bond hearing, there has been no further progression or prosecution of this individual case other than bond modifications made at Defendant’s request,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

The attorney general “appears to have delayed this matter in order to gain tactical advantage over the defense,” Adams wrote.

“The State is solely responsible for the lack of an indictment in this matter, let alone trial,” the judge continued. “Furthermore, as explained above, the State’s delay appears to be deliberate, weighing heavily against it.”

The Atlanta Press Collective reports that after Marsicano was charged with domestic terrorism, “they were banned from their law school campus at the University of North Carolina,” and “struggled to find work and housing.” Although Marsicano passed the North Carolina bar in 2025, the state’s Board of Law Examiners told them “it would not consider Defendant’s eligibility for bar license while this charge is pending,” the judge wrote.

The judge found that, the “personal and professional consequences that Defendant has faced as result of this indefinite charge, without legal forum in which it may be timely challenged, are forms of actual prejudice to Defendant.”

The construction of Cop City drew protests for years — and a brutal crackdown from authorities, including the 2023 killing of activist Manuel Paez Terán, known as Tortuguita, during a raid on the forest. The Guardian revealed that a planning document for the raid called the protesters “domestic terrorists.”

Despite overwhelming opposition, construction on the facility was completed and many protesters still face criminal charges.

“My team’s aggressive, participatory, and political defense got us this huge win,” Marsicano said in a statement. “No one is free until all of us are free, so we all need to keep supporting all Cop City defendants, especially the most vulnerable.”