Department of Justice (L), NurPhoto/Getty Images (R)
- Dona Bissey faces charges relating to her involvement in the Capitol riot.
- Bissey has requested leniency because she is unvaccinated and fears contracting COVID-19 in jail.
- Her attorney said she could face "severe illness or even death" if jailed.
A Capitol riot suspect has requested leniency because she is unvaccinated and is afraid of getting COVID-19 in jail, court filings show.
Dona Bissey, 53, from Bloomfield, Indiana, faces four charges, including entering and remaining in a restricted building, violent entry, and disorderly conduct in the Capitol.
Her attorney has requested that she receive no jail time and just 18 months probation.
"Simply put, if Ms Bissey is incarcerated at the D.C. Jail or in the BOP, which has seen 259 inmate deaths and over 43,000 infections from COVID-19, she is extremely likely to suffer severe illness or even death," her attorney A. J. Kramer wrote in the filing.
Kramer noted that his client "has not helped her chances of fighting the virus by remaining unvaccinated."
However, Kramer said Bissey "does not deserve to die for her bad behavior on January 6" and implored the court to take her "unique medical vulnerabilities" into account.
-Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) October 8, 2021
The filing notes that Bissey maintains she is unvaccinated because her doctor in Indiana advised against it because of her compromised liver.
The court documents cite an article in The Atlantic, which notes that some doctors in the US might be incorrectly advising patients not to get COVID-19 vaccines.
It notes that most doctors say "vanishingly few people" have legitimate reasons to avoid COVID-19 vaccination.
In the court filings, her attorney also noted that Bissey had been "shunned" by people in her hometown of Bloomfield, Indiana, in a memorandum seen by Insider.
Bissey, who owns a hair salon, has lost a lot of customers since her arrest and is taking antidepressants, Kramer said.
Earlier this week, Bissey wrote a handwritten letter to the judge, describing herself as a "God-fearing, country-loving, law-abiding, hard-working Patriot."
She added that she was "deeply saddened" by the events that transpired at the Capitol on January 6 and that she was "very remorseful."
-Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) October 5, 2021
In the court filing, her attorney A. J. Kramer said the events of the insurrection had left Bissey with "deep regret, fear, shame, and remorse."
Bissey's claims of remorse are in stark contrast to her attitude on social media in the days following the riot.
"It was a day I'll remember forever. I'm so proud I was a part of it! No shame," she wrote on Facebook on January 7.
More than 660 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol riot, according to Insider's tracker.