CV NEWS FEED // A federal judge this week sentenced four pro-life advocates who participated in a peaceful protest at an abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee back in 2021.
Nashville-based U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger handed down the sentences, which were significantly lighter than those recommended by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to the Associated Press (AP), Trauger sentenced two of the defendants – Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green – to “three years of supervised release.” Vaughn is a Christian and father of 11 children.
She sentenced defendant Coleman Boyd to “five years of probation” in addition to paying a $10,000 fine.
Trauger sentenced only one of the defendants, Calvin Zastrow, to prison time. Per the AP, he “was given a 6-month prison sentence followed by three years of supervised release.”
The AP noted that Zastrow “was considered one of the main organizers” of the protest.
By contrast, DOJ prosecutors had charged the pro-life advocates “with a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $260,000,” the AP indicated.
Trauger acknowledged that the four protesters were motivated by “sincerely held religious beliefs” but claimed that they had used their beliefs to “give themselves permission to ignore the pain they caused other people and ignore their own humanity.”
Former President Bill Clinton appointed Judge Trauger to the federal bench in 1998.
A Tennessee jury had convicted the defendants of “felony conspiracy charges” as well as violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act six months ago.
As CatholicVote reported in January, a Mt. Juliet police officer had testified that the pro-life protesters were “peaceful and not aggressive.”
In August 2022, just over one year following the Mt. Juliet protest, Tennessee’s “trigger law” went into effect, protecting almost all unborn children in the state from abortion.
The pro-life law was triggered by the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization two months prior, which overthrew Roe v. Wade.
Prior to Dobbs, the DOJ “oversaw just a handful of FACE Act violation cases,” an AP report pointed out:
In 2021, just three cases involving three defendants were charged, and in 2020, the agency handled just one case.
By 2022, that number jumped to 11 cases involving 29 defendants. And last year, there were 10 cases and 22 defendants.