DETROIT—A group of Christian pro-life activists, including an 89-year-old survivor of a communist prison camp in Eastern Europe, face over a decade in prison after they were convicted on Tuesday in a federal trial in Michigan.

A jury found Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Cal Zastrow, his daughter Eva Zastrow, and 89-year-old Eva Edl guilty of engaging in a conspiracy against rights and violations of the FACE Act. Edl was forced into a camp as a young child by Yugoslavian communist dictator Josip Broz Tito before fleeing to the United States. 

The seven were prosecuted by the Biden administration, which has been using the conspiracy against rights charge, originally designed for the Klu Klux Klan, to go after pro-life activists. They face over 10 years in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines upon sentencing.

The charges stemmed from a peaceful demonstration, which the defendants called a “Rescue,” where the group sat and stood outside of the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, alongside a group of other pro-life activists. Edl and Idoni were convicted on an additional charge for a pro-life protest they attended at the Women’s Health Clinic in Saginaw, Michigan. 

The jury, composed of five men and seven women, began deliberating on Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. local time at the Theodore Levin Federal Courthouse in Detroit. They deliberated for just around three and a half hours. The case was overseen by Judge Matthew Leitman, an Obama appointee. 

Throughout the trial, Edl said that it was her faith in Jesus and belief that suffering would strengthen her that kept her going. She said that going through trials was like the process of a blacksmith’s refining fire. 

“We need suffering in our lives in order to be purified and not feel sorry about ourselves,” she said, adding that Christians should say “hammer away Lord at that anvil.”

The verdict comes after seven full days of arguments packed with tension and drama. 

On August 9, a woman named Sarah gave testimony about her interactions with the defendants at Northland after she and her husband arrived for an abortion appointment after being told their unborn son would not survive outside the womb. 

Sarah began to cry as soon as she walked into the courtroom and continued to cry throughout questioning from the government. At one point she was led out of the courtroom and she could be heard crying and wailing from the hall. 

Lawyers for the defense said that the Justice Department was exploiting her pain and trying to manipulate the jury during their closing arguments on Monday. 

Caroline Davis, one of the pro-lifers who was at Northland, was a key witness for the government. Her testimony took over a day, as she discussed her previous relationships with the defendants. She pled down her felony charge to a misdemeanor and has been a crucial witness for the Justice Department in multiple cases over similar protests, but has not yet been sentenced for Michigan. 

Throughout the trial, Leitman repeatedly clashed with David Peters, the lawyer for Phillips. On Monday, he tried to bring up the history behind the conspiracy against rights charge, which was passed in 1870 to deal with groups like the Klu Klux Klan, not peaceful protesters. 

The defense objected, and Leitman ordered the jury out of the room. He then criticized Peters for going “way over the line” and suggested he might hold him in contempt. 

Later, Leitman grew upset with Peters after the attorney invoked John Adams’ remark that the Constitution was made for a “moral and religious people.” Leitman said that he was setting the stage for jury nullification, where a member of the jury votes not to convict based on a moral objection to the law.

The prosecution for the Justice Department was led by U.S. Attorney Frances Carlson, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sunita Doddamani, and trial lawyer Laura-Kate Bernstein. They repeatedly said that the defendants were trying to force their Christianity on others, and that they violated a women’s right to have an abortion. 

Lawyers for the defendants emphasized that their clients’ primary goal was to “save babies from slaughter,” not to intimidate anyone. They also pointed out the peaceful nature of the incident at Northland and how their actions were motivated by their Christian faith. 

This is the Biden administration’s latest attempt to sue pro-life activists using its novel interpretation of the “conspiracy against rights” statute. Previous groups have been found guilty of the charge in Tennessee and Washington, D.C. Some were sentenced to prison.