Staff Reports
NS&D Monitor
1/31/2014
A stunning event that took place on July 28, 2012 took another stunning turn this week when the sentencing hearing for the three Y-12 protesters was postponed as it neared its conclusion because of surprising snowfall that forced the closure of the Federal Courthouse in Knoxville, Tenn. William Quigley, a Loyola University New Orleans professor who has worked for the defendants pro bono, shrugged his shoulders as he walked in the snow outside the courtroom and said it was just another unexpected and unwelcome event.
The sentencing was approaching the stage where the three Plowshares protesters—Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed—were ready to take the stand and make their final statements to U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar. But the judge, the federal prosecutor and the defense attorneys agreed that they could not complete the proceedings in an appropriate way by 2:30 p.m.—when the courthouse was due to be closed. “I’ve got a lot of questions I want to ask,” Thapar said.
Hearing Will Resume Feb. 18
So the decision was made to halt the hearing at that point. It’s scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. on Feb. 18. Earlier, after listening to arguments, the federal judge ordered the three to pay full restitution—$52,953—to the federal government, waiving interest and allowing payments to be made quarterly. Defense attorneys disputed the costs associated with the Y-12 intrusion on July 28, 2012. They noted that the total grew substantially from the estimates presented during the May 7-8 trial.
However, Thapar determined that the earlier number, which was less than $9,000, had been used to validate that the damage was more than $1,000, which elevated the depredation of government property charge to felony status. He said it was OK for the cost to be re-evaluated with a more extensive assessment. Rod Johnson, the deputy general manager for security operations and emergency management at Y-12, said the restitution costs included repairs to Y-12’s fences, spray washing and repainting the exterior of the plant’s storehouse for bomb-making uranium, and expenses for extra security in the hours following the break-in.
Gov’t: ‘They Have Shown No Remorse’
The Transform Now Plowshares, as the three protesters referred to themselves, cut through four fences at Y-12, spray-painted peace messages, and threw baby bottles filled with human blood against the walls of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. The defendants freely admitted their actions during the trial but denied any guilt, arguing that their actions were necessary to help protect humankind from weapons of mass destruction. They testified that the actual crimes were being committed at Y-12 with the continued production of nuclear arms. “They have shown no remorse or contrition for their acts,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore said this week, arguing that the protesters should not be able to use “acceptance of responsibility” as a means to get a reduced sentence.
It appears, based on the first part of the hearing, that the protesters lawyers also won’t be able to use some other arguments to get a reduction from the recommended sentencing guidelines. Although Thapar noted that their acts at Y-12 were not akin to terrorism, which is legally associated with their felony charges, he disagreed that their actions were so different as to be considered outside the “heartland” of the statute. He noted that the felony charges on which they were convicted—sabotage and destruction of government property—have mostly been applied to anti-nuclear protesters who’ve infiltrated facilities and done damage. Because of the seriousness of the felony charges, especially the injuring defense charge that falls under the federal Sabotage Act, the protesters were not allowed release from jail in the past eight months while awaiting sentencing. Most of the time was spent at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga. They will remain incarcerated until the next sentencing hearing.
B&W Y-12: Changes Would’ve Happened Anyway
Johnson, the Y-12 security official, was the only witness called by the government at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing. In an apparent attempt to counter the defendants’ claims that their actions on July 28, 2012 actually did the government a service by revealing the weaknesses in security, Theodore asked Johnson, Y-12’s security chief, whether the security would have improved at Y-12 if there hadn’t been an intrusion by the three protesters. Johnson said there were assessments under way that almost certainly would have identified some of the Y-12 security problems. “It would have occurred but not as painfully,” Johnson said.
Attorneys representing the protesters had planned to call Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a retired bishop of the Detroit archdiocese and founding member of Pax Christi USA. However, Gumbleton developed pneumonia and was unable to make the trip to Knoxville. The defense attorneys used a series of character witnesses to underscore the beneficial acts and nonviolent lifestyles of Rice, Boertje-Obed and Walli. Some of the witnesses, including John LaForge of Wisconsin, the founder of Nukewatch, have been arrested themselves for participation in protests at weapons sites, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore—who specializes in national security cases—made note of their backgrounds.
Supporters Urge Lenience for Protesters
Professor Mary Evelyn Tucker, director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University, is a longtime friend of Rice and her family. “She is a person of compassion, a person of love,” Tucker said of the nun. There’s nothing to be gained by keeping Rice in prison, she said. Kathleen Boylan, who knows Walli from their time together at the Catholic Worker facility in Washington, D.C., called him gentle, kind and courteous. She noted that he received the 2013 Peacemaker of the Year award from the Catholic peace organization, Pax Christi.
The decision to halt the sentencing hearing and postpone the proceeding for another few weeks was not well received among the dozens of Plowshares supporters who’d traveled to Knoxville from around the country. Paul Magno, an activist who has served as a media liaison for the Transform Now Plowshares and their supporters, said, “This is a totally unanticipated development. I don’t think when anyone came to the courthouse this morning, they thought this was going to happen. Certainly the judge didn’t.”
Magno noted that the previous night, during a “Festival of Hope” for supporters of the Y-12 protesters, there were activists from more than 20 states who’d come to Knoxville to support the defendants. “And, I’m sure, on short notice weeks from now, It’ll be hard for people to do that again,” he said. He said that was probably the biggest frustration for people supporting the three individuals charged with breaking into Y-12. “But many of us will try to get back here,” Magno said. “I know I’m going to check my schedule so that I’m here.”
