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COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 1, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A Franklin County judge has begun requiring some defendants to take an experimental COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of their probation, saying he “just want[s] them to be safe in the community.” 

According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal on June 25, Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye started adding COVID-19 vaccination to the terms of probation for some defendants. At the time of the article, Frye had required the jab in three of the 20 cases he heard that week.

In one of the three cases, defendant Cameron Stringer was sentenced to two years of probation for improper handling of firearms and possession of cocaine. Conditions of Stringer’s probation include submitting to random drug screening, avoiding additional legal trouble, and providing proof of COVID-19 vaccination to the probation department within 30 days, according to court documents

“I think it’s a reasonable condition when we’re telling people to get employed and be out in the community,” Judge Frye said, adding that he would not “speculate” about circumstances in which a defendant might object to the requirement for religious, philosophical, or medical reasons. 

Mary Holland, president and general counsel at Children’s Health Defense, told LifeSiteNews in an interview Thursday that the judge’s decision to require COVID-19 vaccination was “jaw-dropping.” 

“I would argue that that’s illegal,” said Holland, who is former research scholar and director of the graduate lawyering program at New York University School of Law and has taught courses at Columbia Law School.  

“The shots at this point are Emergency Use Authorization [EUA] only,” she said. “They’re experimental. Federal law requires that people have the right to refuse an experimental medical product and that includes people on probation, people in incarcerated settings, people in mental health settings, it means everybody.” 

“Coming out of World War II, the U.S. instigated the Nuremberg Code, and the first principle is: The consent of the individual is ‘absolutely essential,’” Holland said, adding that since Judge Frye is providing sustained jail time as the alternative to vaccination, “what he is doing is illegal.” 

The Nuremberg Code was a set of research ethics principles for human experimentation resulting from the famous Nuremberg Trials, which prosecuted members of the Nazi leadership for war crimes.  

According to the Code, “The voluntary consent of the human subject [of a medical experiment] is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision.” 

Holland described the Nuremberg Code as “very comprehensive,” adding “when they say ‘consent,’ they actually mean ‘consent.’” 

“People can’t be forced to participate in a medical experiment,” Holland said, “and because [COVID-19 vaccines] are not yet licensed – they only may be safe and effective – they are experimental. The clinical trials don’t end for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines until 2022 and 2023. They are experimental. So they cannot be mandated.” 

The Journal said it is “unclear how widespread” Judge Frye’s judicial practice is, but at least one other Ohio judge is doing something similar. A spokesman for the Ohio Supreme Court, which provides oversight of lower courts, notified the Journal about an Cuyahoga County judge who is offering “time off” probation if defendants take the shot. 

According to an NBC-affiliate news station based in Cleveland, Judge David Matia has been giving defendants the option to reduce their probation time if they prove they got vaccinated. 

While Matia said he cannot force defendants to take the experimental vaccine, he expressed hope that other judges would follow his example and use the option of reduced probation time to incentivize vaccination. 

According to Holland, incentives to take the jab is likely unethical and violates the Nuremberg Code, but it is probably not illegal. Requiring vaccination in order to avoid jail time, however, is “a different story.” 

“When you say ‘I’m going to fire you,’ ‘you can’t come to school,’ ‘you can’t have probation,’ ‘you can’t participate in this Medicaid program,’ ‘you can’t come to the hospital,’” Holland said, “those are things that are clearly coercive, and I think those things are illegal.” 

“I hope that there’s a criminal defense lawyer in Ohio who’s going to take that on,” Holland added.  

Children’s Health Defense has prepared a document advising employers, universities, and other institutions that it is a violation of federal law to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations because the shots are only approved under an Emergency Use Authorization and are therefore experimental.  

The document cites Title 21 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which states that “individuals to whom the product is administered are informed — (I) that the Secretary has authorized the emergency use of the product; (II) of the significant known and potential benefits and risks of such use, and of the extent to which such benefits and risks are unknown; and (III) of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks.” 

LifeSiteNews reached out to Judge Frye’s office for comment but has yet to hear back.