Prairieland Defense Says Withheld Bullet-Ricochet Evidence Would Undermine Attempted-Murder Charge Against Song

The Intercept reported September 27, 2026 that on the final day of the Prairieland trial — in which nine Texas protesters were charged with crimes including providing material support to terrorism over a 2025 action at the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas — the defense attorney for activist Benjamin Song argued that withheld bullet-ricochet evidence would undermine the government’s attempted-murder charge against him. Song was charged with attempting to shoot the first officer on scene; his defense contends ballistics evidence shows the shot could not have been directed at the officer. The article, sourced to a single outlet, does not state the jury’s verdict or whether the ricochet argument was preserved for appeal — the defense’s own claim that the evidence was withheld is presented as an allegation, not an established finding.

Prairieland is the case the corpus has tracked from its first unsealed charges through conviction and sentencing: DOJ unsealed the first “antifa terrorism” charges in October 2025 (2025-10-16–doj-unseals-first-antifa-terrorism-charges-prairieland), seven of nine defendants pleaded guilty that November (2025-11-19–seven-prairieland-defendants-plead-guilty-material-support), a jury convicted the remaining eight in March 2026 (2026-03-13–prairieland-jury-convicts-eight-material-support-terrorism), and defendants were sentenced to 30-100 years in June (2026-06-23–prairieland-defendants-sentenced-30-100-years-antifa-terrorism). This entry documents a post-conviction evidentiary dispute in that same case — whether ballistics evidence supporting Song’s attempted-murder charge specifically was properly disclosed — a live open question pending confirmation of the case’s current appellate posture.