Pro-life rescuers immediately incarcerated following jury’s guilty verdict in DC FACE Act trial

A jury on Tuesday found five pro-life activists guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and conspiracy against rights. They were immediately incarcerated following the verdict and could face more than a decade in prison for their efforts to prevent women from killing their preborn babies.

In a statement to LifeSiteNews at the courthouse on Tuesday, defendant William Goodman urged his supporters “to forgive the jury, the judge, and all those who witnessed against us, and to pray that they would see how God loves the gift of every human life.”

All the defendants were led away and Goodman was handcuffed after the judge determined that the rescuers must be immediately detained pending sentencing since the nature of the FACE Act violation amounted to a “crime of violence.”...

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Steve Crampton, senior counsel with the conservative Thomas More Society law firm, called the immediate incarceration due to the alleged “violence” of the crime “an outrage” since “the one thing the defendants had really agreed upon was to remain non-violent.”

“The real violence is what happens during the abortion procedure,” he said...

According to an email from pro-life rescuer Bernadette Patel to LifeSiteNews, the jury asked the judge several clarifying questions during their Friday deliberations, including asking for a definition of the terms “oppression” and “intimidation” under the law. In response, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly allowed jurors to broadly interpret the word “oppress” as any acts that “harm, frighten, punish, prevent, and obstruct.”

Kollar-Kotelly had no comment on other questions pertaining to an incident in which an abortion-seeking woman collapsed in the hallway of the abortuary, and the nature of the procedures undertaken at the notorious late-term abortion facility.

On Tuesday, the jury found all five defendants guilty on all charges. Sentencing has not been determined yet, but each defendant could face up to 10 years for the conspiracy charge and a year for the FACE Act violation, as well as $350,000 in fines and three years of supervised release.

Supporters of the activists have had cause for anxiety over the course of the week-long trial as former pro-life “rescuer” testified against her colleagues, an abortion staffer claimed that Catholicism was compatible with her work, and the judge admonished a Catholic nun who began praying in the courtroom while the witness passed by.