Nuns sentenced to prison for peace protest

by Keith Coffman

July 26, 2003 by Reuters

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0726-01.htm

DENVER - Three Roman Catholic nuns who defaced a Colorado nuclear
missile silo with their own blood as part of a peace protest last
year were sentenced on Friday to prison terms ranging from 30 to
41 months by a judge who called them "dangerously irresponsible."

Sister Ardeth Platte, second from left, hugs an unidentified
supporter, left, as sisters Jackie Hudson, third from left, and
Carol Gilbert, right, look on as the three Dominican nuns head
into federal court in downtown Denver on Friday, July 25, 2003,
for sentencing. The women were convicted in April of obstructing
the national defense and damaging government property for
swinging a hammer at the silo and smearing their blood on it in
the form of a cross. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn sentenced Ardeth Platte to
41 months, Jackie Hudson to 30 months and Carolyn Gilbert to 33
months. The sentences varied depending on the number of prior
arrests each had for previous civil disobedience.

The Dominican nuns were convicted in April of malicious
destruction of property and interfering with the national defense
for their protest at the unmanned Minuteman III missile silo near
Greeley, Colorado on October 6, 2002.

The three peace activists admitted breaking into the silo and
pouring their blood around the site and pounding the half-ton
concrete silo lid with a household hammer.

The nuns, who all testified at their trial, said the protest was
a "symbolic disarmament" and did not endanger the national
defense.

Blackburn said in the sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court
that it was "incredible and inexcusable" that the longtime peace
activists would place U.S. Air Force security teams who responded
to the scene in harm’s way.

"It was dangerously irresponsible," the judge said.

Frida Berrigan of New York, sits next to a protest sign during a
peace rally in Civic Center Park in downtown Denver, Thursday,
July 24, 2003. The rally was held to mark the scheduled
sentencing of three pacifict nuns in federal court in Denver on
Friday for obstructing the national defense and damaging
government property for their protest acts at a missile silo near
Greeley, Colo., last October. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

However, Blackburn said that the nuns’ community ties and
service, combined with the minimal damage done, allowed him the
discretion to give them less than the maximum sentences of eight-
years behind bars.

"They did not create a substantial risk of death or injury, or a
threat to national security," he said.

The nuns, attired in black, declined to speak at the sentencing.

The sisters, who are in their 50s and 60s, belong to Sacred Earth
& Space Plowshares, a national nuclear disarmament organization.
About 200 supporters of the nuns showed up outside the courthouse
with antiwar and anti-nuclear-weapons signs.

Hudson’s attorney, Walter Gerash, said afterward that he was
pleased that the judge was lenient on his client. She hasn’t
decided whether to appeal the conviction, Gerash said.

U.S. Attorney John Suthers issued a statement, saying the
sentences were fair and reasonable.

"Contrary to the contention of the defendants, their lawyers and
their supporters, this case was never about suppression of
opposition to U.S. government policies, it was about upholding
the law," Suthers said.

The judge gave the nuns until August 25 to report to federal
prison, but they chose to begin their sentences immediately.