A crowd of about 50 people gathered on Ashland Plaza Wednesday to protest the acquittal Monday of Robert Paul Keegan, a 50-year-old white man, of second-degree murder in the 2020 killing of Aidan Ellison, a 19-year-old Black man. Keegan faces sentencing Friday in Medford on a lesser charge, first-degree manslaughter, and other charges.

“Our main message is justice for Aidan,” Ashland City Councilor Gina DuQuenne said at the rally. “When it comes time for sentencing, we are demanding and requesting the maximum amount of sentencing and for him to serve that sentencing consecutively, because Aidan is dead forever. And Aidan’s mom has a life sentence of never seeing her son again; so, to get justice for Aidan is why we are here, and that’s our request, our hope, our prayer.”

DuQuenne appealed to the crowd’s sense of grief and outrage. “All of us, this is in support of Aidan’s family. We will not allow this to happen again,” she said. “We are not going to sit around and allow young 19-year-old lives to be taken. Aidan was doing what 19-year-old boys do; that’s what they do. My heart goes out, as a mother of black children and grandchildren. My heart goes out to Aidan’s family. … There is no reason why Keegan should be able to take a breath of freedom, not now, not for a very long time.”

DuQuenne encouraged people to write handwritten letters to Judge Timothy Barnack, who will sentence Keegan.

Another speaker, Jaime Powell, addressed the crowd, saying “racism is a white-bodied problem. As we look at Robert Keegan and press for a maximum sentence, know that the work is only just beginning, within ourselves as white-bodied people; I’m talking to the white-bodied people around me right now, this is our disease. We are the ones that can help to heal that and it doesn’t happen in isolation.”

“Aidan’s mom has the maximum sentencing,” DuQuenne added. “She will never see her son again. Aidan will never be able to walk his dog. Aidan will never be a dad; Aidan will never have a full life. Aidan will never be able to be a grandfather. Aidan will never be able to experience life because he is gone. And he’s never coming back. We demand maximum sentencing consecutively, and no time off (for time already served). This man has been sitting in the cushy county courthouse for two-and-a-half years. He needs to feel the true brunt of the penal system. We demand justice for Aidan now!”

The crowd repeated DuQuenne’s concluding cry for justice three times, then the rally came to a close with two choruses of the song “We shall overcome” — but this time asking not just to overcome “someday,” but “how about today?”

The rally was organized by the Ashland High School Truth to Power club and the Ashland Together organization.