One of the latest Capitol rioters to be sentenced is a college student who didn’t vote in the 2020 election.
Gracyn Courtright of West Virginia was among the pro-Trump rioters that descended on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and entered the legislative building. She was seen in numerous photographs among the crowd and inside the Capitol, with one photo showing her holding a “members only” sign.
Attorneys for Courtright, a student at the University of Kentucky, argued that she should get a lesser sentence because she was not there out of malicious intent like other participants. They said she didn’t even vote in the 2020 presidential election, which spurred the riot.
“In my view—if any citizen wants to participate in our democracy, casting a vote is the price of admission,” U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper said. “Because when you do that, you have to study the issues and the candidates, learn what their policies are, figure out how those policies are affecting your community.”
Courtright was sentenced on Friday to 30 days in prison, one year of supervised release and 60 hours of community service. Whether or not she will be able to finish her studies at the University of Kentucky is unclear.
Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images
“I will never be the same girl again,” she said through tears. “This has changed me completely.”
After the riot, she dug in on social media when she was criticized for her actions, before eventually deleting her accounts. Courtright is among the youngest of those publicly charged in the Capitol riot so far, out of more than 700 criminal cases.
Courtright asked the judge that she be allowed to finish her final semester of college, but said that the internet images of her that day, even though her accounts are deleted, will haunt her forever. People won’t see the hard-working student who was on the dean’s list, she said.
“They will only see the girl who trespassed and took pictures to prove they were there. And posted pictures thinking she was just so cool,” Courtright said.
“If I could take back anything in my life, it would be my actions on January 6.”
Courtright’s sentencing was delayed briefly because a nurse had to determine she was OK to proceed, and she gave her statement sitting down.
Participating in a democracy isn’t like going to a University of Kentucky game and “rooting for a team just because of the color of their jerseys,” the judge said. “It’s certainly not resorting to violence when your team doesn’t win the game,” he told Courtright.
Cooper also noted that Courtright, who posted online, “Infamy is just as good as fame” after she climbed through a broken window at Capitol, made it to the floor of the U.S. Senate at about the exact time that Ashli Babbitt, on the House side, was shot dead.
“Do you know how many people died on January 6? Five, including Ms. Babbit?” he asked. “Five.”
“Do you know how many Capitol police officers committed suicide after January 6, harmed from the trauma of that day? Four,” the judge added. “So was it cool to have been there?”
“No,” she answered emphatically.
He said he hoped she could pull her life together and that she “should not be judged by the worst mistake you have made in your life.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
AP Photo/John Minchillo, File
