Appeals Court Vacates Felony Convictions for a Dozen Jan. 6 Defendants

Many of those imprisoned over Jan. 6 charges are now likely to be released, lawyers say.

In this video still, Guy Reffitt stands outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Department of Justice via The Epoch Times

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.”

U.S. Circuit Judges Patricia A. Millett, Cornelia T.L. Pillard, and Florence Y. Pan vacated the convictions for the dozen convicts in brief per curiam orders while remanding the cases to district court judges for further proceedings.

Guy Reffitt, the first Jan. 6 defendant convicted by a jury, is one of the people who saw their obstruction convictions vacated.

Reffitt’s lawyers, in recent motions, highlighted the Supreme Court ruling, as well as a March ruling by the District of Columbia Circuit that struck down a sentencing enhancement applied to a different Jan. 6 defendant.

“Fischer requires reversal of Mr. Reffitt’s conviction on count 2,” the lawyers said in a July filing.

Prosecutors initially wanted more time to consider the Supreme Court’s ruling, but in August, in a dozen cases, they filed joint motions with defense lawyers asking the courts to vacate the obstruction charges.

In more than half of the cases, the obstruction count was the only felony of which the defendants were convicted. Some of those who were convicted have spent years in prison.

The district court judges handling the cases after the appeals court’s decision will hold resentencing hearings. U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich is overseeing Reffitt’s case.

Reffitt has been behind bars since Jan. 16, 2021, and has likely served more time than he would have if he had been sentenced without the obstruction count, his lawyers told the appeals court.

Clint Broden, a lawyer representing Reffitt, told The Epoch Times via email that the appeals court’s vacating the count will result in a resentencing hearing at which he hopes Friedrich “will reduce Mr. Reffitt’s sentencing in light of the decisions by the United States Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.”

The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The agency says on its website that it does not oppose vacatur of the obstruction charge in about 40 post-sentencing cases, while it is still reviewing about 93 others. For pending cases, prosecutors decided against bringing the obstruction charge against about 60 defendants while opting to keep pursuing the charge for approximately 13 others.