“He is impermissibly motivated by a desire to silence protected speech and to punish people who he feels did something wrong through the setting of a bond,” Dillard said.
The preachers were jailed eight days.
Church at Jackson members preach on sidewalks outside places such as bars and the state’s only abortion clinic in the Fondren neighborhood. Members often use a voice amplifier and hand out Bible tracts.
The men were convicted under a statute that says a person is guilty of simple assault if he or she “attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily harm.”
Matt Steffey, a professor at the Mississippi College School of Law, said people usually are convicted under the “physical menace” statute if they threatened someone with a weapon.
State Defender André de Gruy said defense attorneys contacted him in the past week raising questions about the bail.
“A $500,000 bail is unheard of in most felony cases, so it’s certainly unheard of in a misdemeanor case,” he said.
Siders and Peden are also represented by criminal defense lawyers Cody Gibson and Scott Mullennix.
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Leah Willingham is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
This article originally appeared here.
