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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Please pray for the “DC Nine” pro-lifers who will be sentenced by pro-abortion Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly next week in the nation’s capital.
Eight of the nine defendants are being held in federal custody at the Alexandria Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia, and the ninth is under house arrest for participating in a traditional pro-life rescue of the unborn at a late-term abortion center in Washington, D.C. They face a potential 11 years in prison under charges of violations of the FACE Act and “conspiracy against rights.”
The location and schedule for the sentencing is below.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
333 Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington D.C. 20001
May 14:
9 a.m. – Lauren Handy
10:30 a.m. – John Hinshaw
3 p.m. – Will Goodman
May 15:
9 a.m. – Herb (Rosemary) Geraghty
11 a.m. – Jonathan Darnel
1:30 p.m. – Jean Marshall
3 p.m. – Joan Andrews Bell
May 17:
9:30 a.m. – Heather Idoni
1 p.m. – Paulette Harlow
During their nine-month incarceration, several of the prisoners have already suffered serious mistreatment that meets the definition of torture both according to American law and international standards.
Heather Idoni, 59, was placed in prolonged solitary confinement for 22 days and deprived of sleep with the lights of her cell kept on continually. The mother of five and adopted mother of 10 was forced to appear in full shackles in federal court in March 2024 for a pre-trial hearing in a manner usually reserved for dangerous or violent criminals.
WATCH: BREAKING | Biden DOJ Accused of Brutal Treatment of Jailed Pro-Lifer — Prolonged Solitary, Shackles
Jean Marshall, 74, was deprived of sufficient clothing and heat during extreme freezing winter cold, resulting in the contracting of pneumonia, which went untreated for three weeks. She has been denied an urgently needed hip surgery, contrary to her physician’s instructions, resulting in excruciating pain and debilitating use of her right leg.
Additionally, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has directly infringed on the religious liberty of one of the pro-lifers, who has been placed on arrest, insisting that she be prohibited from attending church despite the defendant’s express request to be allowed to attend Mass in addition to doctor’s visits. Paulette Harlow, 75, a devout Catholic, has been refused allowance to attend Mass at a Catholic Church while under house arrest despite her express request to the judge while in court.
LifeSiteNews has also been told by one of the pro-lifers, who wished to remain anonymous, that during the DOJ pre-trial investigation, defendants were interrogated by government agents from domestic terrorism in a show of intimidation to gather information, although their offense consisted in nothing more than peaceful civil disobedience to the infamous pro-abortion FACE Act, which now lacks the legal foundation previously cited in Roe v. Wade after the Dobbs decision.
The above instances all qualify as acts of torture and/or inhumane treatment of prisoners. The acts of torture committed against them are expressly prohibited either by American law or by international standards such as those set forth by the 2015 Nelson Mandela Rules of the UN, to which the U.S. has been expressly called to conform in practice and legislation as recently as December 2023.
READ: Biden DOJ’s treatment of jailed pro-lifers meets international definitions of torture
Commenting on the “historic importance of these sentencings,” jailed pro-lifer John Hinshaw wrote in an article for LifeSiteNews, “From the abolitionists, the suffragettes, the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam war protests, anti-nuclear protests, climate alarmists, and even the ‘mostly peaceful’ riots of 2020, NO ONE was threatened with 11 years!!!”
“We are now entering into the ‘Fugitive Slave Law’ period of our comparable struggle — wherein the slavers/abortionists try to make us all complicit in their evil,” Hinshaw wrote.
“To our ruling class, abortion is sacred; we sacrifice children to it, and they are determined we all genuflect. This I wrote in response to a Michael Novak column 30 years ago, in harmony with Lincoln’s perspective on slavery: We will either lay all our laws, legal systems and institutions at the feet and service of abortion or we will eradicate it. As with slavery, compromise is cooperation.”
READ: So much is at stake in next week’s sentencing of the ‘DC Nine’ jailed pro-lifers
LifeSiteNews’ extensive coverage of the D.C. Face Act trials can be found here.
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