“Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has DENIED our emergency motion to release Lauren Handy from pre-sentencing detention,” the group wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “We have immediately filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. More to come.”
Thomas Ciesielka, a spokesman for the Thomas More Society, didn’t indicate what the group’s plans would be if the appeal were turned down. “Waiting on that decision,” he told CNA on Friday morning.
In its earlier filing, the firm argued that the FACE Act was not “categorically” a “crime of violence,” and thus pre-sentencing detention guidelines for Handy should be considered under “more lenient provisions” of the U.S. code.
Further, “there is no evidence that Ms. Handy poses a danger to the safety of any person or the community,” the firm said; nor does she pose a flight risk, it argued.
Handy had testified during the trial that she and her co-defendants had mounted the blockade effort after she viewed videos that she said appeared to show doctors refusing to care for an infant who had survived an abortion attempt.
Martin Cannon, senior counsel with the Thomas More Society, said after the verdict that Handy “was there to prevent these horrific live-birth abortions, which does not violate the FACE Act.”
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