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Charlottesville, Virginia – Unite the Right torch marcher Jacob Dix walked away a free man on Thursday after his criminal case ended in a historic mistrial.
The decision was reached after nearly 12 hours of deliberation by the jury, with three voting guilty, one undecided, and eight voting not guilty.
Dix was said to be one of hundreds of White men of good moral character who attended 2017’s Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, seeking to halt the removal of the famed Robert E. Lee Statue from university grounds.
Years later, he would be one of many now being maliciously prosecuted for a felony charge of burning with the intent to intimidate—an old Klan-era statute—for his participation in a torch-lit march the night before the protest.
Dix could be seen confidently smiling as he exited Albermale County Courthouse on Sunday, alongside defense attorney Peter Frazier. While prosecutors failed to convict Dix on the antiquated and constitutionally fraught charge, Special Prosecutor Shannon Taylor hinted at their intention for a future retrial.
“It is our commitment to retry this matter,” she said to reporters. In reply, Frazier quipped, “Looking forward to it…We continue to believe we will be successful whenever the next trial may be.”
The Jacob Dix trial, which began on Tuesday, was said to have been filled with “tearful” testimonies of leftist activists and Jewish university students who were present the night of the torch march. Among those who testified was Diane D’Costa, a University of Virginia alumna who moved into her dorm that same day.
“I’m literally putting sheets on my mattress, and I hear a guttural, angry, rhythmic chant of ‘You will not replace us,’” bemoaned D’Costa. “It turned into ‘Jews will not replace us.’”
I was terrified,” she sobbed. “I was looking at the people.”
Also called as a witness was trans-identified male and anti-White extremist Edward “Emily” Gorcenski, an antifascist doxer currently living in Germany, who was also present during the torch march.
“(Dix) called me a leftist piece of shit,” he testified.
Despite testimony issued by some of America’s most protected classes, the jury remained deadlocked. Throughout the case, prosecutors argued that Dix was guilty by association, largely by marching alongside others who had already pled guilty to the same charges.
Defense Attorney Frazier argued that those guilty pleas were coerced by way of lengthy pre-trial detainment and that Dix chanting “you will not replace us” was First Amendment-protected speech.
The next Albemarle County Circuit Court date is scheduled for August 22nd, when the defense says it will motion for the trial to be dismissed. While the case is far from over, those sympathetic to the plight of Cville torch marchers hailed the mistrial as a significant victory against anti-White elements latent in America’s criminal justice system.
The trial of Jacob Dix begins tomorrow in Charlottesville.
— Jason Kessler (@TheMadDimension) June 4, 2024
He is the first brave man challenging these unconstitutional “tiki charges” against nonviolent protesters in court.
Trial lasts all this week. https://t.co/gjJLFDc5el pic.twitter.com/f5ufB2Tn12
Unite the Right organizer and pro-White advocate Jason Kessler called the failure of Albemarle County prosecutors “embarrassing” and alleged that the chance of successfully winning a retrial was slim to none.
“MISTRIAL,” he said on an X/Twitter post. “Jacob Dix is a free man tonight after jurors fail to convict him for peacefully protesting while carrying a tiki torch (an American and European tradition). How FUCKING embarrassing for the Albemarle County Commonwealth Attorney.”
“It wasn’t even close for the prosecution. It was actually close in the other direction,” he continued. “So they can put that in their pipe and smoke it if they think a retrial is going to go any better.
Charlottesville attendant and dissident lawyer Augustus Invictus called Dix’s win the “new face of victory,” hailing him for refusing to take a plea deal and, in turn, thwarting the left’s attempt to shore up their narratives surrounding Unite the Right.
“The new face of Victory,” Invictus said on X/Twitter. “…The prosecution immediately offered him a plea deal. He told them to fly a kite.”
“8 jurors voting Not Guilty is a humiliating defeat for the prosecution, which has pulled every dirty trick in the book prosecuting people for political speech they don’t like. This is a great outcome for Dix and for America,” he continued in another.
In a request for comment by the Justice Report, long-time pro-White advocate and Charlottesville attendee Nathan Damigo said a retrial in the case is not only inevitable—but necessary—in order for the system to “send a message” to those hoping to protest anti-White injustices across the country.
“These cases are political, and the process is the punishment. Even if the prosecutor loses many of these cases, the amount of time, money and stress required of each defendant has a massively negative impact on their lives,” stressed Damigo. “Such a strategy is designed to send a message to White advocates that protesting Jewish power will result in state-sanctioned lawfare.”
“The second reason why Dix’s case, in particular, will be retried is due to the implications his victory will have for other cases and the public’s perception of the district attorneys prosecuting them. I believe Dix has a great chance, at minimum, of achieving another mistrial,” he continued.
Damigo also expressed the absolute injustice and irony of calling people like Edward Gorcenski to the stand, who has a documented history of incitement to violence himself.
“Edward Gorcenski, one of the prosecutor’s primary witnesses, once claimed that violence was justified against those who believed in biological essentialism,” explained Damigo. “Someone who has repeatedly called for violence is the last person you want to put on the stand, especially given the fact that Gorcenski went to the rotunda the night of August 11th to confront the torchlight participants with known violent anti-White terrorists Michael J. Longo Jr., Thomas Massey and Thomas Keenan, who were caught on film initiating violence against torchlight participants.”
“The majority of the jury clearly saw Gorcenski as a cry bully who literally went to disrupt the event with anti-White terrorists and is now playing the victim. Further jury members will also likely see through him,” he continued.
Damigo also attributed Dix’s latest win to defense attorney Frazier and his smart legal strategies but added that another victory was not guaranteed and may be a road hard fought.
“Dix has an excellent attorney who was willing to go on the offensive, unlike most of the defense attorneys in previous Unite the Right-related cases,” added Damigo. “Frazier rightly accused Albermarle County Attorney Shannon Taylor of prosecuting Dix for his Aryan appearance, not because of anything he had actually done. Dix was lucky enough not to have been sucked into the brawl that resulted from the numerous violent attacks by Massey, Keenan, and Longo that instigated it, leaving the prosecutor no room to manipulate the jury’s perception.”
“However, this does not mean Dix is assured victory in his upcoming retrial. The prosecutor was already allowed to falsely claim that according to the law, if someone Dix was with committed a crime, Dix was also guilty.
The events of 2017’s Unite the Right rally have resulted in a years-long campaign to judiciously attack its many attendees, even years after its conclusion. Because there is no statute of limitations on felonies in the state of Virginia, prosecutors have all the time in the world to capitalize on the “burning with the intent to intimidate” charge.
In February, Thomas Rousseau, leader of the American Nationalist organization, Patriot Front, was arrested under the same felony. He is joined alongside many others swept up in a wave of indictments, which included Tyler Bradley Dykes of Bluffton, S.C.; Dallas Medina of Ravenna, Ohio; and Will Zachary Smith of Nacona, Tex. Additional indictments were said to have remained under seal.
Despite this, the Albemarle County Attorney’s office has faced a series of troubling setbacks in their political crusade. In the past, the county has been forced to recuse itself from many torch march cases, after it was revealed that prosecutor Lawton Tufts and Chief Judge Claude Worrell were both “enthusiastic” members of the anti-White extremism movement, commonly referred to as “Antifa.”
This story is developing, and the Justice Report will provide updates on the case as they become available.
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