Works In Progress - June 2003 - Plowshares Sisters Free Until Sentencing

Dominican Sisters Carol Gilbert, O.P., Jackie Hudson, O.P. and Ardeth Platte, O.P., have left Clear Creek County Jail in Georgetown, Colorado on their own recognizance. The Plowshares activists have completed nearly 7 months of incarceration for their symbolic act of blood-pouring and ballpeen hammering at Minuteman III nuclear missile silo N8 in Colorado on October 6, 2002.

When they left jail, they were granted bonds of Personal Recognizance, and signified their commitment to return for sentencing on July 25th before Bush-appointed Judge Robert Blackburn in the Denver Federal District Court. Prosecutor Robert Brown has stated that the Sisters face 8 years imprisonment. In his written statement to the Court on April 14th, he recorded sentencing guidelines and points for charges totaling 78 - 97 months for Sisters Carol and Ardeth and 70 - 87 or 63 - 78 months for Sister Jackie.

With these announcements and no word regarding the motions for acquittal, mistrial or new trial, the Sisters felt they needed release from incarceration for the following reasons:

1. To take time to retreat and pray with their communities and congregations of Sisters for spiritual strength through years of imprisonment.

2. To bring closure and say farewell to family members and friends dying of old age and cancer.

3. To divest themselves of all material goods and provide these to the poor in their neighborhoods.

4. To take care of personal medical needs before sentencing and imprisonment.

5. To say thank you, extend personally gratitude to peacemakers and the people of Colorado for their faithful support and encouragement.

For those of you late in joining this unfolding story, the Sisters were found guilty at the Federal Courthouse in Denver of Injury/Interference/Obstruction of the National Defense and Injury of Property of the United States.

The three nuns cut through a security chain to enter the N-8 missile silo. All three were on the site for several hours, and in a symbolic act of disarmament, hammered on the tracks that carry the lid of the silo to its firing position. They then poured their own blood on the tracks and the silo. In so doing, the three nuns helped to bring attention to the massive stockpile of weapons of mass destruction housed in Colorado. The 49 nuclear-armed missiles in Colorado have recently been refitted with W-87 nuclear warheads, each with an explosive power of 300 kilotons (approximately 25 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb).

All three have been held at Clear Creek County Correction Center in Georgetown, Colorado since October 6th. Their trial began on March 31 and ended on Monday, April 7, 2003 with the under-informed jury bringing in a conviction because the Sisters had been denied a defense by the judge. U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn, in a previously released 32-page opinion, had barred the jury from hearing international law and Nuremberg defenses during the trial. At mid-morning on Monday, the jury had asked Judge Blackburn for clarifications on three points in the jury instructions. As he did throughout the trial, Judge Blackburn ruled against members of the defense team on the clarifications. The three nuns later addressed the jury, thanking them for doing the best they could with the instructions they had been given and with the evidence allowed in court. Ardeth Platte said of their trial, "We have brought forth the truth of the illegality of the practices that are going on right now in our government. We had no criminal intent at any level". She also faults the media for helping create the war's popularity by not showing graphic images from Iraq.

Jackie Hudson arrived back in the Northwest on May 13th to the arms of a welcoming group of friends. Her asthma is severe after months of breathing stale prison air, but she was extremely happy to be home. currently, she is enjoying "breathing fresh air and sleeping in real sheets. They feel like silk!" she says.

Hudson is a Dominican nun, a former piano, vocal and band teacher in Michigan and an activist long connected with the Berrigan brothers in Plowshares actions. The Oct. 6 event was the latest in a string of anti-nuke protests for Hudson since the late 1970s, when she lived in Michigan. She moved to Bremerton in 1993 and has been active with the Poulsbo-based Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, which regularly protests outside Naval Submarine Base Bangor. The Trident base is the largest storage site of nuclear weapons in the country.

Hudson said the hammering at the Oct. 6 protest, and an earlier protest in 2000, symbolized the Biblical scripture in the Old Testament book of Isaiah predicting that people will beat their swords into plowshares. The blood was a statement that they'd rather spill their own blood than have innocent blood shed. Their October demonstration was inspired by President Bush's refusal to rule out using nuclear weapons in Iraq, Hudson said. That threat, she said, is in violation of an international nonproliferation treaty. "When we went to this site, we went to symbolically stop a crime from happening and to uphold international law."

Hudson asserts the U.S. war in Iraq needlessly cost the lives of too many innocents. "If Dan Rather can sit in a room and interview Saddam Hussein, we should have been able to capture him and bring him to justice," she said. "We wanted Saddam Hussein, but have we got him? No. But how many people did we slaughter? To me it was a criminal act that the US committed."

The three nuns brought attention to the massive stockpile of "weapons of mass destruction" housed in Colorado. The nuns tried to use international precedent in their defense, but the judge was swayed by the U.S. attorney's argument that U.S. law supersedes international law. The nuns were stunned by the process and by the jury's decision to side with prosecutors.

"The defendants have been charged for similar conduct in the past and it has not been a deterrent," Prosecuting Attorney Dorschner said. Although the offense carries up to 20 years as a penalty, Dorschner said given the nuns' history and the nature of the Oct. 6 demonstration, they'll probably get between five and eight years in prison. With the statement above, he admits that these sentences will act as a deterrent to anyone planning actions of civil disobedience.

Hudson fears she won't live to see the end of her incarceration.

The nuns have not decided whether they'll appeal. Hudson has said a lost appeal could create a bigger precedent, potentially hindering other protesters' efforts. Her hope is that if she can't, other protesters can help bring about the plowshare moment predicted in the Old Testament. "I just think we're at a moment in history that is so critical," she said. "If we were ever to ban war, now is the time. Our action stems from a right and an obligation based on our belief that the U.S. government's threat to use nuclear weapons violates international law." Sentencing is set for July 25, 2003...10 a.m. for Carol Gilbert, 11 a.m. for Jackie Hudson and 1:30 p.m. for Ardeth Platte.

On July 14th, Jackie will speak on The Responsibility of Citizenship in this Nuclear Age at Traditions Cafe, 5th and Water Streets in Olympia, at 6 p.m. The Event , which is free, is sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and The Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, the event is free.