Scottish Catholic Observer

By Peter Diamond

Sr Megan Rice (above) is one of three Catholic peace activists who face sentencing today over in the incident at the primary US storehouse for bomb-grade uranium. Sentencing for all three is scheduled for 9am today at US District Court in Knoxville.

The US Government has recommended sentences of about six to nine years each for Sr Megan, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, but there is no minimum sentence for what they are accused of. The government also is seeking compensation of nearly $53,000 (£32,230) for damages suffered from when the three activists cut through fences and painted slogans on the outside wall of the uranium processing plant. The protesters also splattered blood and hammered on the wall.

Sr Megan, who turns 84 this Thursday, and her co-defendants are asking for leniency but are prepared for the worst.

They say their actions at the Y-12 National Security Complex were symbolic and were supposed to draw attention to America’s overwhelming stockpile of nuclear weapons, which they call immoral and illegal.

“These people have been committed peace and justice advocates for decades,” defence attorney Bill Quigley said.

Mr Quigley made reference to the fact that there is no minimum sentence, so the judge has a lot of discretion. The activists have been in prison since they were convicted last May, and it is possible that they could be sentenced to time served.

He has spoken with all three defendants, and said they are prepared for the possibility of longer sentences.

“Sr Rice has said that if the judge lets them go, that’s great, but if the judge sentences her to 10 years in prison and she has to die in prison, that’s OK also,” he said.

However, US District Judge Amul Thapar has refused previous requests for mercy from the defendants, including his decision that they would remain jailed until sentencing. In a ruling last October denying requests for acquittal and a new trial, the judge wrote: “The defendants are entitled to their views regarding the morality of nuclear weapons. But the defendants’ sincerely held moral beliefs are not a get-out-of-jail-free card that they can deploy to escape criminal liability.”

Since their convictions last May, the activists have presented the judge with thousands of support letters from around the world, which Mr Quigley called the greatest show of support he has seen in his two decades of working with protesters.

“I think that is mostly because of Sr Rice,” he said. “She’s very well loved and has lots of people praying for her and supporting her.”

One of the letters entered into the court record is from a nun in London, Sr Katharine Holmstrom.

“Your court faces a great challenge—making a careful distinction between persons who act in clear conscience, guided by a moral vision, and others whose actions may be self-serving or maleficent in nature,” she wrote to the judge. “In cases like these, the law is sometimes incapable of making such distinctions. The heavy burden of seeking a just disposition then falls to the jurist who will render a sentence.”

Another letter is from Sr Rice herself states: “As a defendant, I ask only that you allow your conscience to guide you.”