JUDGE SHOWS LENIENCY TOWARD TRIO THAT BROKE INTO Y-12

The trio of peace activists that broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in 2012 are in jail and will stay there for years to come, based on the sentences meted out yesterday by Federal Judge Amul Thapar. But Thapar—known as a straight-by-the-book judge—actually showed some leniency. Each of the three activists received prison terms lower than the recommended sentencing guidelines and, in the case of Sister Megan Rice, the 84-year-old nun who shocked the world 18 months ago by crossing into Y-12’s protected area in the middle of the night, she received only a 35-month sentence. That’s less than half of the low end of the recommended sentencing range for her.

 

One thing Thapar said he could not do was accommodate Rice’s request for a sentence that would keep her in prison for the rest of her life. He could have sentenced her to as much as 30 years in prison, but he said he hoped she’d use—upon her release—her “brilliant mind” to promote change in Washington, D.C., rather than commit crimes in Tennessee. “In our country I firmly believe that breaking the law is not the answer [to making change]. The political process is,” Thapar said. Rice’s co-defendants, Michael Walli, 65, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 58, each received a prison sentence of 5 years and 2 months in prison. Those sentences also were significantly lower than the government’s recommended punishment for the pair, each of whom has been arrested dozens of times for protest actions. All three of the protesters will be placed on three years of supervised probation after release from prison.