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Those two words blasted off the marble columns of the Senate gallery on May 6, 2014, when the preachers and clergy from around Missouri who make up the Medicaid 23 raised their voices in righteous frustration. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were there to advocate that the state Legislature expand Medicaid to thousands of poor people who need it.

Cole County jurors this week heard the chant while watching a video of the protest. They heard the gavel come down and saw the preachers — all but three of them black — remain in the gallery and continue their protest. They decided that evidence was in the people’s house, a building that is practically a monument to the First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceable assembly.

When presented with the decision as to how they would punish the preachers, attorney Jay Barnes asked the jurors to turn to the book at the center of his clients’ faith.

Have mercy.

That was part of the protesters’ message in 2014, and Thursday, it was part of Barnes’ plea.

He read the eighth verse in the sixth chapter of the Old Testament book of Micah:

“And what does the Lord require of you?� the passage reads. “To act justly and to love mercy ...�

A jury of 10 whites and 2 blacks took less than six minutes to reach their decision.

It was less than half the time those preachers originally spent singing, praying and chanting in the gallery that overlooks the Senate chambers.

There would be no jail time, jurors decreed. A judge will determine a fine, if any, at a later date.

One juror told me her version of mercy. She wishes the jury could have decided the fine instead of the judge.

“I was really kind of hoping we could have recommended $1,� she said.

In reality, the defendants have spent much more than that from their own pockets over the past two and a half years as Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Richardson waged what Barnes termed a “caped crusader� effort to punish 23 men and women of faith for exercising their constitutional rights in the building dedicated to protecting them.

Wednesday night, after the verdict and before the sentencing, two of the defendants, the Rev. Tony Johnson of the First Baptist Church of Liberty, and Bishop Steve Houpe of Harvest Church in Kansas City, were at JCPenney, refreshing their wardrobe as the trial dragged on to its fourth day.

As they checked out, the clerk asked them their story.

“I’m a Marine,� Houpe told her. “I fought for the very rights they are trying to take away from me.�

“That doesn’t seem fair,� the clerk said.

Be fair, the preachers told the Senate on that May day in 2014.

What they wanted was for a Medicaid expansion vote to actually come to the floor of the Senate, but in the six years since the Affordable Care Act became the law of the land and states have had the opportunity to use billions of federal dollars to expand health care for the poor, the issue has never received a meaningful airing in the full Missouri Senate.

That would seem a fair thing to do. The reason the issue never comes to anything but symbolic votes, however, is because it just might pass. Privately, enough Republicans in the Legislature admit they would vote for Medicaid expansion if ever given the chance. With their votes combined with Democratic votes, it would become law. But Senate leaders block such action year after year because they would rather protect their members from tough votes than provide health care to the poor.

Next January, the issue will be back.

So will the Medicaid 23.

“It’s not over,� said Rod Chapel, one of the attorneys for the pastors, and also the president of the Missouri NAACP.

Richardson, in an attempt to portray himself as the protector of law and order in the state Capitol, has instead energized a movement that will descend on the building in droves from January to May.

“If there’s a conviction, the next time it won’t just be the Medicaid 23,� the Rev. Cassandra Gould of Quinn Chapel in Jefferson City told me before the trial. “It will be 23 times 23 times 23.�

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ will knock on the door of the people’s house and ask to be let in.

Do justice, they will demand of the elected officials who walk the Capitol’s marble halls.

Have mercy, they will ask of those who spend the state’s limited resources.

Be fair, they will plead to men and women whose decisions affect a poor woman’s ability to feed her children.

With a unified, righteous voice, they will appeal to a higher power, because they live in a country that says that is their right, even if an overbearing prosecuting attorney seeks to silence them.

The Medicaid 23 will not be silenced.

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ will be vindicated.