{"id":312408,"date":"2024-05-15T11:42:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T16:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=312408"},"modified":"2025-03-04T13:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T19:00:01","slug":"sentencing-continues-four-pro-life-activists-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/sentencing-continues-four-pro-life-activists-dc\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentencing continues for pro-life activists in DC, including grandmother and Iraq War vet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sentencing continued on May 15 for pro-life activists convicted<\/a> of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and \u201cconspiracy against rights.” Scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday were Herb Geraghty, Jonathan Darnel, Jean Marshall, and Joan Bell. Three other pro-life activists were sentenced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The activists were found guilty<\/a> of conspiring to violate civil rights and blocking access to notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo\u2019s Washington, D.C., abortion business in October of 2020. They reportedly used chains, bike locks, furniture, and their bodies to prevent abortions from being committed and to prevent police from removing them from the premises \u2014 peaceful protest tactics commonly used today and even in decades past.<\/p>\n

The three activists sentenced<\/a> on Tuesday were Lauren Handy, age 30, who was sentenced to 57 months with credit for time served, John Hinshaw, age 69, who was sentenced to 21 months with credit for time served, and William Goodman, age 54, who was sentenced to 27 months in prison with credit for time served. They have each been in prison for nine months since their convictions on August 29, 2023.<\/p>\n

The conspiracy statute<\/a> under which the activists have been charged is 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 241<\/b>, which “makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in the United States in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States or because of his or her having exercised such a right. Unlike most conspiracy statutes, \u00a7241 does\u00a0not\u00a0<\/strong>require, as an element, the commission of an overt act.” Interestingly, even as abortion advocates push to undo laws from the 1800s (like Arizona’s pro-life law from 1864<\/a>, which lawmakers recently voted to revoke<\/a>, as well as federal Comstock laws<\/a> against mailing<\/a> abortion drugs across state lines), this particular statute was put in place in 1870. Forbes notes (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

Section 241 was initially passed after the Civil War as part of the Enforcement Act of 1870 as a way to punish members of the Ku Klux Klan<\/strong> and other Southerners from intimidating or harassing Black voters for exercising their new voting rights, but has since been used more broadly to thwart attempts to interfere in federal elections.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, the DOJ’s civil rights division notes<\/a> that “Section 241 is used in Law Enforcement Misconduct and Hate Crime Prosecutions. It was historically used, before conspiracy-specific trafficking statutes were adopted, in Human Trafficking prosecutions.”<\/p>\n

Now, it has been used against pro-lifers seeking to prevent homicide against preborn human beings.<\/p>\n

Herb Geraghty<\/strong><\/p>\n

First to be sentenced on Wednesday was 27-year-old Herb Geraghty. Geraghty was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Geraghty, along with Handy, cited a 2013 Live Action undercover\u00a0video<\/a> of abortionist Santangelo as the motivation to hold the protest at his DC clinic. In the video, Santangelo indicated to an undercover investigator that he wouldn\u2019t provide certain medical measures for a baby born alive during a botched abortion in his abortion facility. In that video, Santangelo directly states:<\/p>\n

I mean, technically, you know, legally, we would be obligated to help it, you know, to survive. But, you know, it probably wouldn\u2019t. It\u2019s all in how vigorously you do things to help a fetus survive at this point [24-25 weeks]\u2026 you know, there are things you do\u2026. let\u2019s say you went into labor, the membranes ruptured, and you delivered before we got to the termination part of the procedure here, you know. Then we would do things \u2014 we would \u2014\u00a0we would not help it<\/strong>\u2026 we wouldn\u2019t \u2014 uh, intubate, let\u2019s say.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In the video, he made it clear that he would not provide medical care to an abortion survivor and would allow the born child to die.<\/p>\n

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Herb Geraghty (l) with PAAU founder Terrisa Bukovinac (r) Photo: Rehumanize International (Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n

In March 2022, pro-life activists retrieved<\/a> a medical waste bin from a medical waste hauler outside Santangelo’s facility. In that container, they discovered the bodies<\/a> of 115 aborted children. Physician experts told Live Action News that\u00a0five of those aborted children<\/a> appeared to have been old enough to survive outside the womb, raising concerns about potential legal and serious ethical violations by Santangelo’s facility. (Washington, D.C. does not have a gestational limit on abortion.) Despite multiple attempts, appeals, and press conferences in an effort to get authorities to investigate or perform autopsies on the children to determine cause of death, nothing has been done. Earlier this year, the DOJ attempted to have the bodies of these children destroyed<\/a>, until members of Congress and outside legal counsel stepped in.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Darnel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iraq war veteran (serving two tours) Jonathan Darnel, 42, \u00a0has been sentenced to 34 months in federal prison with credit for time served, amounting to approximately 25 months. He was convicted<\/a> on September 15, 2023. According to Monica Migliorino Miller of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, one of the conditions of his three-year probation is to perform 100 hours of community service. He is also required to refrain from criminal activity and avoid going within 1000 feet of ‘reproductive health’ care facilities.<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8Iraq war veteran Jonathan Darnell has been sentenced to 34 months in prison under the FACE Act.<\/p>\n

— Terrisa Bukovinac (@Terrisalin) May 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n