On September 5, 2021, Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings informed Keandra McDole Ray and Kristina Kelly, community activists, of the Delaware Department of Justice’s (DOJ) intent to institute proceedings against McDole Ray and Kelly. At the time, McDole Ray and Kelly had been exercising their right to protest and were doing so outside the home of a Department of Justice employee.
McDole Ray’s protest activity intended to call attention to the case of Lymond Moses, a 30-year-old Black man whom two New Castle County police officers fatally shot in January 2021. The two officers who fired their weapons were both cleared after an external investigation of the incident. McDole Ray’s activism has also called for justice in the case of Jeremy McDole, her late brother, who was fatally shot by four Wilmington police officers in 2016 while he was using a wheelchair.
The ACLU of Delaware represented Keandra McDole Ray and Kristina Kelly in these proceedings to affirm her First Amendment right to protest. The ACLU of Delaware successfully negotiated a settlement agreement wherein the Attorney General agreed to drop her case against McDole Ray and Kelly, on conditions including that they would limit residential protest activities to those protected by the First Amendment and comply with applicable noise ordinances.
