A U.S. appeals court has vacated the felony convictions of 12 people convicted for taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, a move expected to lead to the release of many of the prisoners.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Sept. 9 threw out convictions for obstructing an official proceeding, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s summer ruling in Fischer v. United States, which found that prosecutors had been interpreting the law too broadly, in a way that “would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison.”
