‘By One Man’s Signature’: Pro-Life Defendants Reunite A Year After Conviction To Celebrate Pardons

By  Leif Le Mahieu

LENOIR CITY, Tenn.—Nearly a year after a Nashville jury convicted them on federal conspiracy charges over a peaceful pro-life protest, a group of pro-life Christians reunited to celebrate their pardons from President Donald Trump, recount their time in prison, and encourage each other in the fight against abortion.

In the year since they had last all been together, two had gone to prison, one was slated to go to prison, and the rest were restricted from traveling, owning guns, and voting. But thanks to Trump’s January 23 pardons of the nearly two dozen pro-lifers targeted by the Biden administration, 10 of the pardoned traveled last week for a reunion at the Patriot Church, just outside of Knoxville.

Those pardoned who made the trek to East Tennessee included Paul Vaughn, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, Chet Gallagher, Heather Idoni, and Cal Zastrow, all of whom were convicted on felony conspiracy charges in January 2024 over a sit-in at a now-closed Mt. Juliet, Tennessee abortion facility. Each of them had faced over a decade in prison, with Zastrow getting six months, Gallagaher 16 months, and Idoni eight months to run concurrently with her two year sentence over a similar protest in Washington, D.C.