Case Summary
Savanna “Vanna” Batten observed the July 4, 2025, holiday by exercising her First Amendment right to protest. That night, she attended a noise demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where ICE holds non-citizens in carceral conditions. There are numerous reports of squalid conditions at Prairieland, including the deaths of several detainees within the past few years. That night, some of the demonstrators showed support for people detained inside the immigration facility by setting off fireworks and shouting words of hope.
That evening, a different protester and a police officer exchanged gunfire. The officer was shot in the shoulder. Batten had no advance knowledge of the shooting, carried no weapon, and was not present at any planning discussions beforehand — facts government witnesses themselves confirmed at trial.
Batten was one of nine people arrested in the aftermath and tried together in a single trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She was convicted on all four federal counts against her: riot, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and using and carrying an explosive. She also faces pending state charges, including terrorism and aggravated assault against a public servant. On June 23, 2026, she was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison.
During the trial, the prosecution focused heavily on the fact that Batten and some of the others on trial were members of a public book group called the “Emma Goldman Book Club.” The government deemed the political zines that the group read “insurrectionary materials.” This, along with her presence at the protest, was the primary evidence against her.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) and the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) are representing Batten on appeal, challenging both her conviction and her sentence.
Why It’s Important
The government’s case against Batten did not allege that she planned the protest, carried a weapon, or knew violence would occur. Yet she was convicted of four federal crimes and sentenced to 50 years in prison.
If a 50-year sentence can stand for someone who attended a protest and ran a book club, no one who has ever marched, organized, or spoken out is safe from similar prosecution. This case tests whether political association, dissent, and lawful protest attendance can be used as the basis for a terrorism conviction, and whether the First Amendment still protects people who show up to demonstrate against government policy they oppose.
