Skip to content
Navigating a New Political Landscape: View real-time updates about the impact of and Northeastern’s response to recent political changes.
Apply
Stories

Darrell Brooks, convicted in the Waukesha Christmas parade attack, claimed he was a ‘sovereign citizen.’ Does the concept have any legal basis?

People in this story

(Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Darrell Brooks reacts as the guilty verdict is read during his trial in a Waukesha County Circuit Court in Waukesha, Wis., on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Brooks, who is represented himself during the trial, was charged with driving into a Waukesha Christmas Parade last year, killing six people and injuring dozens more.

A man convicted on Wednesday of driving into a crowd of people during a Wisconsin Christmas parade last year had, for some weeks, represented himself during his murder trial and invented a “sovereign citizen” legal defense strategy. 

Darrell Brooks, 40, was found guilty on all 76 criminal charges related to the deaths of six people he struck with his truck when plowing through the crowd during the parade. Dozens of others were injured.

During the circus-like trial, Brooks frequently clashed with the judge and offered bizarre legal theories that had no basis in law or reality. Chief among them was the concept of sovereign citizenship, a notion linked to far-right extremism

Continue reading at News@Northeastern.

More Stories

Elon Musk speaking

Elon Musk is creating a new political party. Can a third party ever win a US presidential election?

07.10.2025
Jay Logsdon, center, an attorney representing Bryan Kohberger, second from left, speaks during a hearing in Latah County District Court, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool)

The Bryan Kohberger plea deal without the victims’ families’ consultation is normal, says Northeastern expert

07.03.2025
Cover of Gretchen Heefner's book, Sand, Snow, and Stardust

From the ice caps to the moon: Northeastern professor charts military’s environmental adaptation

07.11.25
All Stories