Author Archive for jack

by Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa

Nine months after their conviction on charges of sabotage and criminal damage at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, three nuclear abolitionists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms today, February 18, in federal court in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Federal Court Judge Amul Thapar imposed prison terms less than what federal guidelines recommend and prosecutors asked for: 35 months for Sr. Megan Rice (84 years old), and 62 months for Michael Walli (64 years old) and Greg Boertje-Obed (59 years old), followed by 3 years of supervised release. Divided among them, the three Transform Now Plowshares activists must also pay restitution totaling $52,953.

Photo by Carol Baum

All found guilty of disorderly conduct but acquitted of trespassing; Order of Protection extended 2 years; Judge decides to send a message

[UPDATE:  On February 25, Elliot Adams (the last defendant of the Hancock 17 drone protest group) was taken right to jail from the courtroom.  He was found guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 15 days in jail, a $250 fine and a two year order of protection to stay away from Col Earl A. Evan.]

from the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars

On Friday, February 7, Town of DeWitt Court Judge David Gideon found twelve of the Hancock Drone War Crimes Resisters guilty of disorderly conduct, but acquitted them of trespassing.They had gone to Hancock Air National Guard Base near Syracuse, NY on October 25, 2012, to bring a Citizens War Crimes Indictment to the base and symbolically block the gates. Their nonviolent action had called for an end to drone warfare.

by Jack Cohen-Joppa

Today’s sentencing hearing in federal court in Knoxville, Tennessee for three nuclear disarmament activists was continued to February 18 after a winter storm forced early closure of the courthouse.

By the time Federal Court Judge Amul Thapar suspended proceedings shortly after lunch, he had heard mitigating arguments and testimony from character witnesses on behalf of defendants Greg Boertje-Obed, Sr. Megan Rice SHCJ, and Michael Walli. The prosecution had asked that the court impose the maximum sentence recommended under federal guidelines, and pay $52,000 restitution. The defendants have yet to address the court, and will be heard along with closing arguments from their attorneys and prosecutors when the court reconvenes in February.

photo by Ralph Hutchison

Christopher Spicer, a graduate student at Boston College’s Master of Divinity program, was arrested by Oak Ridge City Police and charged with trespass when he apparently stepped across the blue-line boundary at the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Sunday, January 26, 2014.

Spicer was attending the Sunday vigil sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and had been listening to a reading of the testimony of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who testified in federal court in Knoxville in April 2013 at a motions hearing in the Transform Now Plowshares case.

photo by Hattie Nestel

from Shut it Down affinity group

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont—Acting on their conviction that governments, regulatory agencies, and corporations fail to honor the public trust, nine women of the Shut It Down Affinity Group went to Entergy Corporation headquarters on Old Ferry Road January 15 to demand the immediate shut down of Entergy’s 42-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.

Brattleboro police arrested the women when they refused to move from the main headquarters door when Entergy officials ignored their demands. Lieutenant Jeremy Evans led the police detachment. The women were booked on site and released pending charges and a court date.