Final Exit Network and individual members have been prosecuted in Arizona, Georgia, and Minnesota. The defenses have largely centered around what constitutes aiding or assisting in suicides. The defendants conceded that while volunteer exit guides give their clients information about how to ensure a swift, pain free death, they do not physically take part in the suicides, and they maintain that prohibitions against informing clients how to take their lives violate the free speech clause of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The Minnesota case resulted in the first and only conviction of either Final Exit Network or any of its personnel. In the Minnesota trial, it was established that Final Exit Network personnel did not provide any physical assistance in the "suicide" of the "victim." The State openly acknowledged that corporation (and only the corporation) was convicted solely for communicating "words" that "enabled" a suicide, not for any physical conduct. For its sentence, the corporation was ordered to pay $30,000 in fines and $2,975.63 in restitution. The Minnesota Court of Appeal affirmed the corporation's conviction in December 2016 (confirming there was no physical assistance but rejecting Final Exit Network's free speech argument); the Supreme Court of Minnesota declined to review the conviction in March 2017, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review in October 2017.