84-Year-Old Radical Nun to Go to Jail for Breaking Into Nuclear Site, Spraying Blood on Walls
A radical nun who vandalized a nuclear weapons facility in Tennessee in 2012 has been sentenced to 35 months in federal prison, a district judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar gave 84-year-old Sister Megan Rice of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus a more lenient sentence than expected, as the recommended guidelines for Rice's sentence included 70 to 87 months. Rice, who considers herself a peace activist opposed to nuclear weapon production, had asked for a life sentence.
"Please have no leniency with me," Rice told the judge, according to Al Jazeera. "To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest gift you could give me."
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Thapar declined, telling Rice that although she had broken the law in 2012, her previous decades of good work and her age caused him to give her a more lenient sentence. He did clarify, however, that no one is above the law. "I just can't accommodate you on that," Thapar told Rice. "We judge actions, not viewpoints. There is no question these actions violate the law."
Rice, along with two other co-defendants, were convicted of breaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July 2012 and defacing the walls of the plant with human blood, as well as putting up banners and beating the walls with hammers. They were doing so to protest the production of nuclear weapons, carrying out the actions listed in Isaiah 2:4, "They shall beat swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks."
Rice's co-defendants, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, received sentences of 62 months for their roles in the break-in. All three defendants consider themselves members of the Transform Now Plowshares activist group that seeks to bring attention to the United States' nuclear weapons arsenal. The nuclear weapons facility that they infiltrated in 2012 is a major site for government production of bomb-grade uranium in the U.S.; the site previously provided uranium for the Hiroshima bomb.
The protesters had previously been ordered to pay $52,953 in fines to cover repairs to the nuclear facility. For their efforts, the activists have received massive public support from fellow Transform Now Plowsharers. They have reportedly received over 2,000 letters of support since their arrest. Additionally, supporters gathered at the Knoxville courthouse on Tuesday and at a nearby church to witness the sentencing and offer further encouragement to the trio.
Throughout their trial, the protesters' defense attorneys pushed for lesser sentences, arguing that their clients were "completely nonviolent" when they were apprehended by police and that they truly believe in the cause they are fighting for.
"What I'm hopeful for is that people really could appreciate what he did and why he did it and who he did it for. He did it for all of us," Boertje-Obed's wife, Michele Naar-Obed, told reporters before the hearing.
