Judge Halts Sentencing of Pro-Life Activists Facing Years In Prison. Trump Could Pardon?
Three months ago, seven pro-life activists were found guilty of staging a rescue/ blockade of an abortion clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, including an 89-year-old concentration camp survivor, and faced a decade in prison. Now, a federal judge has given some of them a reprieve, pausing the case against them until Trump takes office. According to the Daily Wire:
Judge Matthew Leitman ordered Tuesday that the FACE Act and felony conspiracy case against the pro-life activists be paused until after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The pro-lifers, including 89-year-old communist concentration camp survivor Eva Edl, face up to 10 years for their conviction on conspiracy charges in September.
Sentencing had not yet been scheduled due to several pending motions from the defense to dismiss the convictions that Leitman has not yet ruled on. These motions will further be delayed due to the judge’s latest order.
“As further discussed on the record, the Court will conduct another status conference during the week of March 24, 2025, to receive a report from the Government trial team as to whether there has been any change in the Government’s position with respect to the continuation of this case and/or with respect to the positions expected to be advanced by the Defendants in their post-trial motions,” Leitman, an Obama appointee, wrote in a court order viewed by The Daily Wire.
Leitman’s order comes as there is anticipation that President-elect Donald Trump may quickly move to pardon the pro-lifers who have been imprisoned under Biden. Back in June, Trump promised to review the cases of “every political prisoner,” including people imprisoned over the FACE Act.
The group was initially arrested and charged after peacefully encircling the Northland Family Planning Clinic in 2020 and refusing to let anyone in, staging a “blockade.”When the police came, they also refused to move, striking up conversations with officers in order to give others more time to talk to abortion-minded women and seek to change their minds. Eventually, law enforcement escorted them off the property.
Among the group found guilty was Eval Edel, an 89-year-old woman who survived a communist prison camp in her youth and who had been arrested over 50 times for blockading abortion clinics.
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