American Notes Justice

They called themselves Protectors of the Code and claimed to be devoted to traditions of chivalry. But Matthew Goldsby and James Simmons were sentenced to 60 years in prison last week for the unchivalrous bombings last Christmas morning of three Pensacola, Fla., medical facilities where abortions were performed. Kaye Wiggins, Goldsby's fiancee, who told police that the doctors' offices had been attacked "as a gift to Jesus on his birthday," and Simmons' wife Kathy were given five years' probation and fined $2,000 apiece. The decisions were not as harsh as they seemed. Judge Roger Vinson allowed Goldsby and Simmons, both 21, to serve six ten-year terms concurrently; they could be eligible for parole in as little as two years. The judge also ordered the men to pay $353,074 each as restitution to the doctors whose offices were destroyed. The payments, however, will not begin until six months after the men's release from prison, and then at a rate of only $100 a month. One victim of the bombings estimates that it might take 299 years to pay the fines.