FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 22, 2026
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr Appeals Dismissal of Racketeering Charges Against 61 #StopCopCity Defendants
Latest Move by AG is an Attempt to Further Drag Out Charges that Defendants and Civil Liberties Advocates Call a Dramatic Overreach, Untethered from Georgia Law
ATLANTA, GA – Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr filed an appeal Tuesday challenging the dismissal of racketeering charges against 61 #StopCopCity defendants, extending a case that has already dragged on for more than two years without a trial. The appeal filed with the Georgia Court of Appeals is in response to the December 30, 2025 dismissal of RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charges by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer.
The racketeering charges were part of a sweeping indictment filed by Carr in August 2023 and centers around political opposition to the Atlanta Police Training Facility known as Cop City. Judge Farmer ruled in December that Carr failed to obtain the constitutionally required authority from Governor Brian Kemp to file the indictment.
The trial court’s dismissal of RICO charges confirms what defendants and civil liberties advocates have said from the beginning, that this prosecution represents a dramatic overreach by Carr’s office, untethered from the limits of Georgia law. That the State is now attempting to malign the trial judge as an “activist” for merely following the Georgia Constitution is yet another public display of their lack of credibility.
“This case was always about the State’s desire to crush a legitimate movement against the construction of Cop City,” said Chris Caraway at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and one of the defense lawyers in the RICO case. “The process was always meant to be the punishment, with the threat of years behind bars as a means of intimidating protest and resistance to a so-called training center that promises further oppression and the militarized policing of Atlanta residents.”
On December 30, Judge Farmer also denied a defense demurrer, attempting to dismiss domestic terrorism charges against a group of five defendants, charges which are also part of the same August 2023 indictment. A week later, on January 6, defense lawyers for Francis Carroll, one of the five defendants charged with domestic terrorism, appealed Judge Farmer’s denial of their motion to the Supreme Court of Georgia for immediate interlocutory review on constitutional grounds. In response, Carr also filed his own interlocutory appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
While the Georgia Court of Appeals is obligated to rule on Carr’s appeal, the defense and prosecutorial constitutional appeals to the Supreme Court of Georgia are discretionary, and the high court has no obligation to rule on them.
The RICO case has been plagued with problems from the start, including a number of evidentiary issues. In addition to violating several discovery deadlines, the AG’s Office violated multiple defendants’ constitutional rights in July 2024 by sharing attorney-client privileged communications with prosecutors, police, and each RICO defense team. In September 2024, the prosecution was forced to drop money laundering charges against the three ASF defendants. In another blow to the prosecution, Domestic Terrorism charges were dismissed last summer in DeKalb County against RICO trial defendant Jamie Marsicano.
“Judge Farmer’s ruling simply confirmed what we all knew from the start, that the State’s prosecution against these 61 individuals was illegitimate,” said Josh Lingsch, an attorney for one of the defendants. “Appealing this decision is emblematic of the same flawed decision making and missteps by the State that have plagued this case since it was indicted in 2023,” continued Lingsch. “While there is confidence that Judge Farmer’s decision was correct and will be upheld on appeal, the State’s decision to appeal it continues to unfairly leave the lives of the 61 defendants in this case in limbo.”
The 61 defendants, who were arrested on different dates from late 2022 to early 2023 at various locations across Georgia, have had their lives upended as a result of the felony charges. Defendants have experienced job losses, housing issues, career disruptions, and travel restrictions, in addition to the stress and anxiety that comes from the threat of years in prison hanging over their heads.
Over 170 people have been arrested so far during protests against Cop City. The facility was completed this year despite mass opposition from Atlanta residents, including a multi-year campaign with a wide range of tactics from environmentalists, abolitionists, students, teachers, anarchists, Indigenous activists, faith leaders and others. A 2023 ballot initiative petition effort to put Cop City to a direct vote by Atlanta residents collected over 116,000 signatures, more than double the votes that Mayor Andre Dickens received in 2021, but local officials refused to verify the signatures.
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For more information on the sweeping criminal cases, and ways to support the defendants and the movement to Stop Cop City, go to: weelauneethefree.org and FireAntMovementDefense.
