Posted on 03/17/2005 9:50:42 PM PST by jwalburg
DENVER (AP) - A federal appeals court upheld the prison sentences Thursday for three pacifist nuns accused of using their blood to deface a missile silo in northern Colorado in 2002. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted the potential benefit of civil disobedience, but upheld a jury's decision to convict Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte on charges of obstructing national defense and damaging government property.
The three-judge panel ruled the nuns violated a federal law that prohibits intentional disruption of military operations and national defense. The nuns knew, or should have known, their protest against nuclear weapons was not a "trivial intrusion on some obscure military facility," the panel wrote.
Bill Sulzman, a spokesman for the nuns, said he was saddened and disappointed by the ruling.
Hudson, who was released from prison in March, said she wasn't surprised by the ruling.
"It's confirmation of what I'd been thinking all along. I don't have confidence in the court system to uphold the law of the land, international law," Hudson said in a telephone interview from her home in Washington state.
Hudson said the protest was an act of "civil resistance" to inform Americans their government was violating international treaties and other agreements by continuing to possess and threaten to use nuclear weapons.
Gilbert is scheduled to be released in May, and Platte in December. Attorneys for the nuns did not return after-hours phone messages Thursday.
After a jury trial in 2002, Hudson, Gilbert and Platte received prison sentences of 30 months, 33 months and 41 months respectively.
The nuns were arrested in October 2002 after they allegedly cut a chain link fence surrounding a Minuteman III missile silo in Weld County. They then used baby bottles to dispense their own blood in the shape of a cross on the silo, the appeals court ruling said.
The nuns are members of the Dominican Sisters order in Grand Rapids, Mich.
what a bunch of fricking idiots..
Hudson .. "I don't have confidence in the court system to uphold the law of the land, international law"...
Move to North Korea, ya moron and go protest a few missile sites there, why don'tcha?
I don't care if they bottled spit or used "holy water".
They should have been shot on sight.
Grim and prim
"Ye shall know them by their works"
I believe we all know them, all to well.
Trying to make something of wasted lives?
The skanks should have been tried on bio-terrorism charges, and then promply sent to the newly remodeled "Jeffrey Dahlmer Wing".
And I'm sure she can cite those "international treaties and other agreements" that the US Senate has ratified.
If the ACLU was "fair and balanced", then they would be all over this issue for separation of church and state reasons, siding with the government that these women were in the wrong.
I remember this story.
Weren't the nuns or at least one of the nuns represented by ole commie Ramsey Clark?
I don't know if Ramsey Clark was involved, only that I felt a great rage at them for going on the radio and attacking the United States so willingly.
I think that I heard them 3 or more times, they were all over the radio, bragging about what they had done.
I never heard one thing out of them that told me they were women of the church.
Of course, I want my Nuns to be as they have been through time, offering love, caring and teaching.
Not the hate these gals have so much of.
They don't look like nuns.
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Hundreds continue work of imprisoned
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By Judith Kohler, A.P. (ads it appeared in the Rocky Mountain News)
July 26, 2003
MISSILE SITE M-11 - Hundreds of self-proclaimed citizen weapons
inspectors fanned out across the cow pastures of the northeastern
plains Saturday to carry on the work of pacifist nuns sentenced to
prison for an anti-war protest.
Religious and political activists chose one of 49 Colorado missile sites
to pray, sing, dance, beat drums and hang an eviction notice.
Protesters also went to three sites in southwestern Nebraska.
Three Roman Catholic nuns, Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson and Ardeth
Platte, were given prison terms ranging from 30 months to 41 months
on Friday. Prosecutors said they hoped the sentences would deter
others from similar protests.
Hudson, 68, Gilbert, 55, and Platte, 66, were convicted in April of
obstructing the national defense and damaging government property
last fall after cutting a fence and walking onto a Minuteman III silo
site, swinging hammers and using their blood to paint a cross on the
structure.
Bill Sulzman, one of the organizer's of Saturday's action, said the
presence of hundreds of protesters showed the peace movement
remained alive. However, the protesters did not attempt to break
through the 6-foot-tall fence surrounding the city block-sized site.
"The three sisters stirred up a lot more interest," Sulzman said.
"We've put the silos on the map as never before.
Roseann McCullough, of Denver, said the nuns inspired her to go to a
missile site for the first time. She and 11 others from a Catholic church
group in Denver drove to the Minuteman III site referred to as M11 in
the Pawnee National Grasslands, about 140 miles northeast of
Denver.
"I don't think I ever would have thought of coming out here if it
wouldn't have been for the nuns," McCullough said. Her group sang,
prayed and took an oath of nonviolence in front of the missile site. All
that was visible outside the fence was a hatch on the top of the site.
Patrick Buckley and his daughter, Jessica, both of Denver took out a
yellow caution tape and wrapped it around most of the enclosure
before they started singing
"We're putting up crime scene tape because this is the scene of a
crime. These are first-strike weapons that have 20 times the power of
the Hiroshima bomb," Patrick Buckley said.
Uniformed personnel in large patrolled the gravel roads leading to the
underground silos.
Cmdr. Hank Rusch said the protesters had informed Weld County
Sheriff's deputies of their plans and there were no incidents.
The protesters arrived in cars bearing pink and blue signs saying
"Citizen Weapons Inspector."
Timothy Adams, a Denver dentist, was one of them. He said it was the
first time he had seen a missile silo although he grew up during the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
"I'm concerned about the number of nuclear weapons we have. The
Cold War has been over for a decade," Adams said. "I kind of
expected a reduction but both the Clinton and Bush administrations
continue to build them."
A plane flew overhead bearing a banner that said: "We found the
weapons of mass destruction here in Colorado," in a reference to the
failure of U.S. troops to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
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