BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian university students left piles of old school books outside the education ministry building on Friday as part of almost daily street protests demanding accountability over the collapse nearly two months ago of a concrete canopy that killed 15 people in the country's north.
Scattered traffic blockades were also held on various locations throughout Serbia at 11:52 a.m. — the exact time that the concrete construction on the front of the railway station building in Novi Sad crashed onto the people below. The traffic blockades have been held every Friday since the Nov. 1 crash, lasting 15 minutes for the 15 victims.
Many in Serbia blame the collapse on widespread corruption and sloppy work on the railway station building in the city of Novi Sad that was twice renovated in recent years as part of questionable mega projects involving Chinese state companies.
Persistent protests in Serbia reflect widespread anger at the accident but also wider discontent with the rule of populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government. Tens of thousands joined a big rally last Sunday in Belgrade led by the university students.
Prosecutors have arrested 13 people over the Novi Sad tragedy, including a government minister whose release later fueled public skepticism about the honesty of the investigation.
Striking university students have garnered support from various walks of life, challenging the tight grip on power of Vucic's government. The movement's symbol — a red handprint telling authorities they have blood on their hands — has been used by actors, farmers and others backing the protests.
In Belgrade, more than 2,000 students marched to the education ministry. A speaker told the crowd that “we are sick of being called political mercenaries and attacked in the streets.”
In Novi Sad, a student rally criticized the way the state-run RT Vojvodina reports about the protests and the canopy collapse.
Populist officials and the pro-government mainstream media have described the protests as a ‘hybrid war’ against Vucic under the orders of foreign intelligence services. Though Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, Vucic has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms rather than advancing them.
University students in neighboring Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, and the northwestern town of Banja Luka on Friday gathered in support of their Serbian colleagues and to draw attention to problems in their own country.
People stopping traffic, stand in silence during ongoing protests that erupted after a concrete canopy fell last month and killed 15 people, in front of the state-run TV headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Cars sit in traffic, as activists block the road during ongoing protests that erupted after a concrete canopy fell last month and killed 15 people, in front of the state-run TV headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court has overturned the rape conviction of former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield after determining prosecutors made racially discriminatory statements during the Black man's trial.
The retired football player was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison in October 2020 after being convicted of raping a developmentally disabled woman in 2015 who prosecutors said he lured to his home with the promise of a babysitting job.
The Sixth Court of Appeals found Wednesday that prosecutors violated the California Racial Justice Act of 2020, a law passed during a summer of protest over the police killing of George Floyd. The measure bars prosecutors from seeking a criminal conviction or imposing a sentence on the basis of race.
Prior to the law, defendants who wanted to challenge their convictions on the basis of racial bias had to prove there was “purposeful discrimination,” a difficult legal standard to meet.
The appeals court said prosecutors used “racially discriminatory language” that required them to overturn Stubblefield's conviction.
The case was “infected with tremendous error from the minute we started the trial,” said Stubblefield's lead attorney, Kenneth Rosenfeld.
In April 2015, Stubblefield contacted the then-31-year-old woman on a babysitting website and arranged an interview, prosecutors said.
According to a report by the Morgan Hill Police Department, the interview lasted about 20 minutes. She later received a text from Stubblefield saying he wanted to pay her for her time that day, and she went back to the house.
The woman reported to the police that Stubblefield raped her at gunpoint, then gave her $80 and let her go. DNA evidence matched that of Stubblefield, the report said.
During the trial, prosecutors said police never searched Stubblefield's house and never introduced a gun into evidence, saying it was because he was famous Black man and it would “open up a storm of controversy," according to the appellate decision.
By saying Stubblefield’s race was a factor in law enforcement’s decision not to search his house, prosecutors implied the house would've been searched and a gun found had Stubblefield not been Black, the appeals court said. The reference to controversy also links Stubblefield to the events after the recent killing of Floyd based on his race.
Defense attorneys said there was no rape, and Stubblefield said the woman consented to sex in exchange for money.
“The trial had a biased judge who didn't allow the evidence from the defense, the fact that she was a sex worker, to be heard in front of a jury,” Rosenfeld said. He called the incident a “transactional occasion” between Stubblefield and the woman.
He remains in custody until a hearing next week, during which his attorneys will ask a judge to approve a motion to release him. Prosecutors have several options, including asking the court to stay their decision so they can appeal to the state's Supreme Court, or refile charges.
The Santa Clara District Attorney's Office said it was “studying the opinion.”
Stubblefield began his 11-year lineman career in the NFL with the 49ers in 1993 as the league’s defensive rookie of the year. He later won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1997 before leaving the team to play for Washington. He returned to the Bay Area to finish his career, playing with the 49ers in 2000-01 and the Raiders in 2003.
FILE - Former NFL football player Dana Stubblefield leaves a federal courthouse in San Francisco, Jan. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
