nuclear-news

Court clears anti nuclear nun of sabotage conviction

Nun’s sabotage conviction for nuclear facility break-in overturned by court http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/08/nun-sister-megan-rice-nuclear-facility-tennessee-sabotage-overturned Second ruling, for injuring government property, upheld after Sister Megan Rice and two fellow activists broke into Tennessee uranium storage facility in 2012 An appeals court has overturned the sabotage convictions of an 85-year-old nun and two fellow peace activists who broke into a facility storing much of this country’s bomb-grade uranium and painted slogans and splashed blood on the walls.

In a 2-1 opinion issued on Friday, a panel of the sixth US circuit court of appeals overturned the most serious conviction against Sister Megan Rice, 66-year-old Michael Walli and 59-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed. The court upheld a conviction for injuring government property.

On 28 July 2012, the activists cut through several fences at the Y-12 national security complex in Oak Ridge to reach the uranium storage bunker. Once there, they hung banners, prayed and hammered on the outside wall of the bunker to symbolize a Bible passage that refers to the end of war: “They will beat their swords into ploughshares.”

At issue was whether the nonviolent protest injured national security. The majority opinion of the appeals court found that it did not. “If a defendant blew up a building used to manufacture components for nuclear weapons … the government surely could demonstrate an adverse effect on the nation’s ability to attack or defend … But vague platitudes about a facility’s ‘crucial role in the national defense’ are not enough to convict a defendant of sabotage,” the opinion says.

Rice is serving a sentence of just under three years. Walli and Boertje-Obed are each serving sentences of just over five years.

Defendant’s attorney Bill Quigley said he hopes they will be re-sentenced to time served and released from prison.

The US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Tennessee did not immediately comment on the ruling Friday.

FUKUSHIMA BREAKING NEWS; on V DAY SISTER MEGAN RICE, GREG AND MICHAEL. convictions over turned

May 9, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA