A key witness for the Biden administration’s successful prosecution of 10 Christian pro-life activists who took part in a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday for her part in the protest.
Caroline Davis, who took a plea deal with the Justice Department in exchange for her testimony against her one time fellow activists, is expected to be sentenced by Middle District of Tennessee Federal Judge Aleta Trauger at the Fred Thompson federal courthouse in Nashville on Wednesday. At one point, Davis faced felony charges and over 10 years in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines for her role in a peaceful pro-life protest at the Carafem abortion facility in Mt Juliet, Tennessee on March 5, 2021.
The March 2021 protest involved a group of demonstrators gathered on the second floor of an office building in the hallway outside Carafem in Mt. Juliet. The group, including Davis, prayed, sang hymns, and urged women showing up to the clinic to not get abortions. Several sat in front of doors to the facility and against the walls of the hallway.
In October, Davis pled guilty to misdemeanor charges related to the protest if she agreed to testify. She was a key witness in two federal trials in Nashville, including one where six defendants — including Chet Gallagher of Tennessee, Coleman Boyd of Mississippi, Heather Idoni of Michigan, Cal Zastrow of Michigan, Paul Vaughn of Tennessee, and Dennis Green of Virginia — were convicted of violating the FACE Act and civil rights conspiracy over the protest.
The FACE Act is a Clinton-era law that is frequently used against pro-lifers protesting outside of abortion facilities. The six convicted in February face up to 10.5 years in prison and fines of up to $260,000 when sentenced in July.
Davis also testified in a one day bench trial for four others involved in the demonstration earlier this month. Those four — Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, James Zastrow, and Paul Place — were convicted of violating the FACE Act and face up to six months in prison and a $10,000 fine upon sentencing in July.
During her testimony in January, Davis claimed that she had a change of heart about attending the Carafem demonstration. She said her “rational side” was “in the toilet” at the time of her participation. She also said that she changed her mind “over time” and that being indicted by the federal government “terrified” her.
In cross-examination, Davis became repeatedly exasperated with the questions from defense lawyers, especially when asked about how many times she met with the government before the trial. When asked about a previous meeting with the prosecution and about how long it was, she said, “I have a busy life,” and replied “Oh my God” when asked about another meeting with the government. At one point, Trauger told her to just answer the question and not add any commentary to her answers.
No one present at Carafem was arrested for assault or any assault-related charge. Davis said the most violence she saw was when a police officer moved two pro-lifers aside when taking a woman down the hallway to the abortion facility. Davis was also a key witness in a similar Washington, D.C., abortion facility FACE Act trial where she again pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge in exchange for her testimony.
The convictions have prompted calls from Republican lawmakers to repeal the FACE Act, saying that it has been weaponized to target pro-lifers.
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