Jasmine “Abdullah” Richards is a Black Lives Matter activist. Jasmine is a 28 year old black woman and the founder of the Pasadena chapter of the Black Lives Matter activist group.

Trial

Jasmine Richards was convicted of "attempting to take a person from the lawful custody of police, which has to be done by means of a riot," by a jury.

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Richards was also convicted of violating probation by being charged with a misdemeanor in an unrelated case while out on bail.

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On June 7, 2016, Judge Elaine Lu sentenced Richards to 90 days in jail, with 18 days served, three years on probation, and one year of anger management.

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Incident

The sentence stems from an incident on August 29, 2015, where police responded to a 911 call after an altercation at a local park.

The owner of a restaurant near the park told police an unidentified young black woman allegedly did not pay for her meal and punched a restaurant worker.

After police arrived they attempted to detain the woman.

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Richards intervened and tried to stop police from arresting the woman since she thought police had detained the woman unlawfully.

On the day of the incident Jasmine was attending a protest about the police shooting of Kendrec McDade, a 19-year-old unarmed black teenager who was killed by Pasadena police in 2012. ^[2]

Richards was initially charged with inciting a riot, child endangerment, delaying and obstructing peace officers, and felony lynching.

When the court announced the June 1 trial date, only the lynching charge remained.

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Part of the incident was captured on video.

At one point, police say Richards stood in front of a police car and prevented the car from leaving with the arrested woman.

She then called out to a group to circle the police car.

Officers then cleared a path, ultimately allowing the car to leave.

Richards was arrested two days later for her involvement.

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Controversy

That crime was known in California "felony lynching" until it was renamed to "attempting to take a person from the lawful custody of police, which has to be done by means of a riot," in 2015.

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In the police report the term "felony lynching was used" however in the trial the jury only hear and used the term

"attempting to take a person from the lawful custody of police, which has to be done by means of a riot."

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Jasmine Richards is the first African-American to be convicted of lynching.

Lynching laws historically applied to the mobs that took suspects out of police custody to hang them.

These vigilantes notoriously targeted African Americans and Latinos, which is why Richards' supporters are outraged that she, a black woman, faced such a charge.

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Richards lawyer Nana Gyamfi plans to file an appeal and says that "She (Richards) was persecuted and jailed because of her political beliefs."Many members of the Black Lives Matter have also come out in support of Richards in believing that she was persecuted fro her political beliefs rather than for just reasons. ^[0]