CLEVELAND — Sixteen members of a breakaway Amish community from eastern Ohio are scheduled to be resentenced in Cleveland after a federal appellate court overturned their hate crime convictions.

The resentencing today is necessary because their original sentences did not distinguish between the hate crimes convictions that were overturned and other charges related to their involvement in the forced beard and hair cutting of seven members of other Amish communities and assaults on two others in 2011.

Eight defendants have already served their sentences and cannot be returned to prison. Attorneys have asked a federal judge in a written motion to release the remaining eight defendants, including community leader Samuel Mullet Sr., by sentencing them to time served. Mullet has been in custody for just more than three years and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in early 2013.

A jury found all 16 guilty in 2012. Mullet did not directly participate in any of the attacks, but prosecutors accused him of exercising control over members of his community and helping hide evidence.