A Nun Walks Free: Government's Sabotage Case Dismissed
Some here will recall that in the summer of 2012, three Plowshares pacifists - Gregory Boertje-Obed, Michael Walli and Sister Megan Rice - broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The culprits cut through four fences with bolt cutters, evaded intruder alarms, and eluded armed guards authorized to kill in order to reach the heavily fortified Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, aka the "Fort Knox of Uranium." Whereupon they proceeded to throw blood on its walls and spray paint some anti-nuclear war graffiti while they were at it.
At their trial in 2013 in Knoxville the three were convicted of sabotage and destruction of government property, and have been in federal prison ever since. On Saturday (May 16) the three were unexpectedly freed. Their attorneys won their appeal of the sabotage convictions from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision issued on May 8. The judges' excoriation of the government's absurd argument that the two 60-something pacifist men and an 85-year old nun had somehow managed to harm 'National Defense' by means of blood and spray paint on exterior walls. Per Judge Raymond Kethledge (appointed by George W. Bush),
The defendants' actions in this case had zero effect, at the time of their actions or anytime afterwards, on the nation's ability to wage war or defend against attack."
As to the argument that the action "diverted" guards of the facility from doing their usual jobs, the court pointed out that responding to intrusions IS the job of guards. The court vacated the prison sentences and sent the case back to the original judge for resentencing on their destruction of government property convictions.
Loyola University law professor William P. Quigley, a consultant for the defense team, said the "surprising" ruling and its scathing tone conveyed a radical message to the federal judiciary that "Peaceful protest isn't sabotage." I hope the federal judiciary takes serious collective notice. You never know when today's overmilitarized, steroid-addled law enforcement personnel might finally get the message, along with their enablers/defenders in prosecutorial ranks. They need to start losing regularly in their all-out push to criminalize peaceful protest in this country.