Maya Little Appealing UNC Honor Court Conviction

In a 3-2 decision last month, the UNC Honor Court found graduate student Maya Little responsible for damaging university property – the Silent Sam statue, to be precise – and sentenced her to 18 hours of community service.

Now, the organization Take Action Chapel Hill says Little has officially filed an appeal.

Read the appeal here.

Little poured a mixture of red paint and her own blood on Silent Sam during an April 30 demonstration. UNC officials testified that it took three days (and $4,048.87 in expenses) for a crew to clean it off.

At her Honor Court hearing, Little objected to one of the five judges on the panel, Frank Pray, who had made public comments supporting the Silent Sam statue in the past. Little and her supporters walked out of the hearing after the panel ruled that Pray would not have to recuse himself from the case.

Pray was ultimately the deciding vote on the panel, which split 3-2 on whether Little’s action constituted “damage.”

Read the judges’ ruling, as well as the two dissents.

Little is appealing the decision based on three factors: “insufficiency of evidence,” “denial of basic rights,” and the “severity of sanctions.” She’s arguing that Pray should not have been allowed to remain on the panel – but she’s also challenging the sentence, especially given past honor-court rulings. (Three years ago, she says, the Honor Court imposed no sanctions on Tar Heel football players who spray-painted Duke’s visiting locker room – even though that action ultimately cost UNC more than $27,000.)

“Ms. Little has been treated with inequitable severity,” the appeal concludes, “because her act of contextualization was centered around a monument to a white supremacy that many wish to see continue.”

According to Take Action Chapel Hill, the appeal goes to UNC’s Judicial Programs Officer, Aisha Pridgen. Pridgen has until early next week to decide whether to accept the appeal; if she does, the University Hearings Board will hear the case.

Little was also found guilty of “defacing a public monument” in Orange County court in October, but was not sentenced; instead, District Court Judge Samantha Cabe continued judgment and waived court costs.

Silent Sam itself is currently in storage, having been toppled by protestors in a separate demonstration in August. UNC-Chapel Hill officials are currently developing a plan for the statue’s long-term future; they’ve been directed to present the plan to the UNC system Board of Governors ahead of that board’s meeting in December.

Maya Little Appealing UNC Honor Court Conviction

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