Pro-life activist and mother of a young daughter, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, announced on Tuesday that her stay of appeal request has been denied by the judge who sentenced her on charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), and that she is to report to federal prison in Alabama on Thursday. She will be in prison for at least a month as her attorney appeals the decision.
“I wanted to give you all an important update,” she wrote. “My legal team worked tirelessly to submit a stay of appeal so I could be home on bail while appealing this case for the sake of my daughter and husband. Unfortunately, the judge, who also sentenced me, denied the [stay of] appeal. I have now been assigned a federal facility to report to and must surrender tomorrow at FCI Aliceville.”
Williams will be surrendering to a non-violent, low-level facility for “unlawful assembly” for three and a half years. Her attorney, in the meantime, will appeal the judge’s denial for her to stay home as her full appeal goes to the appellate court. She hopes she will be able to return home in the next month to be with her family as she appeals her full conviction.
According to Williams, the judge told her that she was a danger to the streets and society and that’s why she refused her request to remain at home during the appeals process.
“So all of this about me being violent, all of this stuff like that, no, no. Don’t let the media play you. I’m going to jail and my category of offense is ‘unlawful assembly’. … I’m going to jail for three and a half years for unlawful assembly. I believe that speaks for itself.”
via Bevelyn Beatty Williams Facebook
Williams was sentenced to 41 months in prison in violation of the FACE Act for her part in a two-day pro-life protest outside a New York City Planned Parenthood in June of 2020. Hers is the second longest sentence a pro-lifer has received in a long series of convictions that have taken place over the last year.
Williams said, “The good news is ministry doesn’t stop in jail. Did I want to go? Of course not. Do I want to go? No, I don’t. I don’t want to go. Cried about it a thousand times. I don’t even think I have enough tears to cry about it. I wanna be with my husband and my daughter, but that’s not happening right now.”
Editor’s Note, 10/16/24: You can give to Williams’ legal defense fund here.
