“Man Sentenced Over Firebombing Of Wisconsin Pro-Life Building”

7 and a half years. Meanwhile nine prolife demonstrators in jail now for walking into two abortion clinics, sitting on the floor and praying the rosary / singing hymns. That's all – no molotov cocktails or even otherwise talking. Their sentence – one year for violating the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act and 10 more years for "Conspiracy to Deny Civil Rights". In the 160 plus page indictment is mentioned that even having a bumper sticker could be construed as part of a conspiracy. I am biased though – my family knows one of the "conspirators" – Joan Andrews Bell – quite well.

Here's the story of the bomb thrower.   

Hridindu Roychowdhury was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on Wednesday after he pled guilty in December 2023 to throwing two Molotov cocktails through the windows of a Wisconsin Family Action building in Madison. The attack came just a week after an early draft of a Supreme Court majority opinion leaked that indicated Roe v. Wade would be struck down. The phrase “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either,” was also graffitied outside the building.

Federal Judge William William Conley, an Obama appointee, who sentenced Roychowdhury, could have given him up to 20 years in prison. Roychowdhury was arrested in Boston as he was attempting to fly out of the country. 

“Roychowdhury’s arson was an act of domestic terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Timothy O’Shea for the Western District of Wisconsin. “Domestic terrorism is cowardly and profoundly undemocratic. It is not speech; it is not an exchange of ideas; instead, it is an attempt to harm or frighten one’s fellow citizens, thus driving Americans apart and weakening the fabric of our democratic society.”