Defense attorneys tried to sell a jury an outrageous justification for the actions of five anti-Israel current and former Stanford University students, who occupied and vandalized the school president’s office in June 2024, by claiming in court on Friday that the students opposed Israeli “genocide” in Gaza, legal experts told JNS.
“Anybody who tries to bring in a political defense to a murder charge or a vandalization charge or whatever, it’s not an exonerating feature. It’s an aggravating feature,” said Richard Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch professor of law at New York University and James Parker Hall distinguished service professor of law emeritus at University of Chicago.
JNS
January 14, 2026
