Feds vowed stiff punishments for George Floyd protest arrests. In most cases, they got less than what they sought.

As his office charged seven demonstrators with setting police cars ablaze during the wave of racial justice protests that roiled Philadelphia after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, then-U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain vowed that they would all be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

He cast the city as one standing between “respect for democracy” and “destruction” and pursued stiff federal arson charges against most of those arrested that would have sent them to prison for mandatory terms of at least seven years.

But as the last of those cases ended in sentencing Tuesday, it — like the ones that came before — resulted in significantly lighter punishment.

In fact, none of the seven charged ended up sentenced to anywhere close to seven years. And except for two cases in which the defendants were charged with additional crimes, the prison time imposed by federal judges was roughly half that sought by prosecutors.

“Nobody’s saying that this was not a serious offense,” said U.S District Judge Joel M. Slomsky as he sentenced the last of the defendants — Marquise Williams, 29, of Philadelphia — to 14 months behind bars on Tuesday. The government had sought just over three years.

“The events that happened that day were tragic in many, many ways — beginning with the death of George Floyd,” Slomsky added. “Mr. Williams, like many, got caught up in the emotion of that day.”

The conclusion that the defendants’ behavior during the May 2020 protest was in most cases an anomaly stoked by communal outrage over Floyd’s May 2020 killing by Minneapolis police appears to have guided all of the judges who have sentenced defendants in the protest-related arson cases.

“In looking at this situation, I really come away thinking we won’t see her again in a criminal courtroom,” said U.S. District Judge Barclay Surrick as he sentenced 37-year-old massage therapist Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal in 2022. “I think she’s learned her lesson.”

He handed her a 2 ½-year sentence. Prosecutors had sought three to four.

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The sentencing ranges faced by Blumenthal and the others were also significantly curtailed by deals they struck with prosecutors allowing them to plead guilty to counts of interfering with police during a civil disorder. That charge, unlike the federal arson charges that prosecutors initially pursued, carries a maximum five-year sentence and no mandatory minimum prison term.

But even that outcome seemed unlikely in the months after the demonstrations that brought thousands into the streets of Center City to peacefully protest police violence only to end with widespread looting of businesses and police cars parked near City Hall and the intersection of North Broad and Vine Streets flipped and set on fire.

Then-President Donald Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr urged U.S. attorneys across the country to pursue charges against the “violent rioters” as similar protests erupted across the nation. And throughout the 2020 election, Trump railed on the campaign trail against what he dismissed as “anarchist riots.”

McSwain’s heated rhetoric about the arson cases brought by his office in Philadelphia mirrored that language from Washington. Activists and local civil rights lawyers accused him of playing politics by pursuing federal charges with what they viewed as overly harsh punishments instead of allowing the cases to play out in state court.

McSwain would later launch an unsuccessful 2022 GOP primary bid for governor based in part on what he described as his record of “literally stop[ing] Philadelphia from burning to the ground” during the unrest.

It was only after McSwain, Barr and Trump left their respective offices that prosecutors’ stance on the cases seemed to soften, resulting in the deals extended to each of the defendants allowing them to plead guilty to lesser charges.

Still, the government maintained the crimes were serious.

By setting fire to police cars amid throngs of protesters, prosecutors said, the defendants had potentially endangered thousands of lives, used peaceful demonstrations as an excuse to destroy government property worth thousands of dollars, and warranted stiff prison sentences.

The judges overseeing the cases agreed — but only to an extent.

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One of the defendants — Ayoub Tabri, 27, of Arlington, Va. — ended up with a sentence of one day shy of a year. Slomsky, the judge who imposed the punishment in 2022, said he believed that Tabri, a Moroccan citizen and permanent resident of the United States, deserved a second chance and fashioned the sentence to ensure he would not face the threat of deportation for his crimes.

Facing a request from prosecutors in November to send prominent activist and social studies teacher Anthony “Ant” Smith to prison for 2 ½ years, U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sánchez decided a year and a day behind bars was sufficient.

The government sought nearly five years for Lester Fulton Smith, 29, of Philadelphia, for aiding in the destruction of a Pennsylvania State Police car at Broad and Vine. He ultimately received 2 ½.

The facts in the case against Williams, the last of the defendants to face sentencing, differed in several respects from those against the others.

The home health care aide turned himself in after the FBI circulated his photo, asking for public assistance in identifying him as a suspect in the destruction of a state police squad car parked near North Broad and Vine Streets.

Although he admitted to throwing a lit road flare into the vehicle, it did not ultimately catch fire. It was, however, significantly damaged by other protesters beating it with skateboards, bike locks and fists.

Unlike the others, prosecutors did not initially charge him with arson, instead charging him from the start with the interfering with police count to which the other protest-related defendants eventually pleaded guilty.

At his sentencing hearing Tuesday, Williams apologized for his actions, telling the judge he got caught up in the fervor of the moment.

“I know I didn’t express myself well,” he said.

In addition to the 14-month prison term, Slomsky ordered Williams serve three-years’ probation upon his release and — as in the other cases — repay the cost of the damage to the police car he helped destroy.