Unvaccinated Capitol rioter begs judge to not send her to jail over fear of getting Covid

On Friday, NBC4 Washington reporter Scott MacFarlane reported that Dona Bissey, an Indiana woman who participated in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is imploring a judge not to sentence her to prison — in part because she is afraid she will contract COVID-19.

"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," wrote an an attorney representing Bissey in the filing. The attorney acknowledged that his client "has not helped her chances of fighting the virus by remaining unvaccinated."

Bissey, who has described herself in filings as "God-fearing" and "law-abiding" despite having been involved in an attack on the U.S. Capitol, has asked instead for 18 months probation. She has also lamented in her filings that she is being "shunned" in her small Indiana town upon her neighbors learning she was a Capitol rioter, and that her hair salon has suffered "huge losses" in business.