A Michigan man who made headlines last September when he shot an elderly pro-lifer canvassing at his door has been sentenced to probation and community service for his crime.
Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger ordered 75-year-old Richard Harvey to 100 hours of community service with a suspended jail sentence of two months and a delayed sentence of one year on probation. He must also pay $347.19 in restitution, as well as court costs. The Ionia County Prosecutor also told Fox 17 that Harvey has to forfeit his gun and that he is to have no contact with his victim. If he violates these conditions, he will spend 60 days in jail.
Harvey pleaded no-contest to the charges of felonious assault, careless discharge of a firearm causing injury, and reckless discharge of a firearm in the incident in which 84-year-old pro-lifer Joan Jacobson was shot on September 20, 2022. Jacobson was going door-to-door, canvassing against a ballot proposal that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution. She first spoke to Harvey’s wife, Sharon Harvey, before being asked to leave the property.
Harvey admitted to the shooting but maintains that it was accidental and that Jacobson was acting confrontational, previously stating that he was trying to use his gun to knock a clipboard out of her hands when it accidentally went off. Jacobson disputed this claim, noting that she was walking back to her car when she was shot.
“I no sooner saw the man when I heard the shot, and I felt pain,” said Jacobson. “I was so stunned. He didn’t say anything to me, she didn’t say anything to me, I didn’t say anything to them.” Jacobson continued to her car and drove herself to the hospital after the incident.
“I think he knew what he was doing, and I think it was intentional,” she said.
Jacobson read a victim impact statement during Harvey’s sentencing hearing.
“I’m still in disbelief that this incident happened to me,” she said. “I still wonder what was so offensive that I did or said in my brief encounter with Mrs. Harvey that made (Richard Harvey) decide I was a threat and needed to get a gun.”
“I have supported Right to Life my entire life — respecting life from the first moment of conception until natural death has fostered in me a heart that forgives and will do no harm to anyone, except of course in self-defense,” Jacobson said. “I wouldn’t harm Mrs. Harvey and I did nothing to show her I intended to harm her. I came to their home for the purpose of saving lives, not to take lives.”
She ended by noting that she does forgive the Harveys, though she would appreciate an apology.
Jacobson is not the only pro-lifer to face an assault, as the number of violent incidents against pro-lifers has risen following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
