The three were convicted in May 2013 on charges of depredation of
property and sabotage; they have been jailed since the guilty verdict
because the sabotage charge, by definition, is a “crime of violence.”
The sentencing will commence at 9:00am with a consolidated hearing
which will likely be followed by separate sentencing hearings for each
defendant.

“The action of the government from the outset has had one aim: to
silence these messengers of truth,” said Paul Magno, spokesperson for
the Transform Now Plowshares support team. “They succeeded in
banishing from the trial all testimony about the vast gulf between the
United States’ legal obligation to disarm under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty and the ongoing activities at the Y12 Nuclear
Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, where production of nuclear weapons
components is ongoing, and plans for a new $19 billion bomb factory
are being drawn up.”

The message of the Transform Now Plowshares action was delivered in
the early morning hours of July 28, 2012, when Walli, Boertje-Obed and
Rice entered the ultra-high security area of Y12 and read an
indictment charging the United States with failure to comply with its
legal obligations under the Nonproliferation Treaty. The opening
paragraphs read:

“Today, through our nonviolent action, we—Transform Now
Plowshares—indict the U.S. government nuclear modernization program,
including the new Uranium Processing Facility planned at Oak Ridge and
the dedication of billions of public dollars to the continuation of
the Y-12 facility.

“WHEREAS, This program is an ongoing criminal endeavor in violation of
international treaty law binding on the United States under the
supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI):

“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be
made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby,
any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary
notwithstanding.”

The indictment delivered that morning was validated by U.S. Attorney
General Ramsey Clark who testified at a motions hearing in federal
court in Knoxville that ongoing weapon production activities at Y12 in
Oak Ridge are “unlawful.” Clark, Attorney General when the United
States signed the Nonproliferation Treaty, testified the US has failed
to meet its legal obligations under that treaty and cited the 1996
opinion of the International Court of Justice that nuclear weapons
states have an obligation to achieve nuclear disarmament. “It’s the
single most important treaty we have ever had,” Clark told the court,
adding, “The life of the planet is at risk from the one plant here in
Tennessee.”

Contrary to the US commitment in the NPT, Y12 currently manufactures
thermonuclear cores (secondary, or canned-subassemblies) for W76
nuclear warheads under the Stockpile Life Extension Program. The
purpose of the SLEP is to extend the life of warheads for decades; the
ongoing W76 LEP is introducing significant modifications to the
warhead’s military capability resulting in what some experts have
called a new nuclear weapon. In addition, Y12 is planning to build a
new bomb production facility, the Uranium Processing Facility, which
will have as its sole mission the production of thermonuclear weapons
components. The estimated price tag for the UPF, originally $1.5
billion, is now $19 billion.

In an attempt to throw a blanket of silence over the Plowshares
resisters’ concerns, the government chose to charge them with sabotage
and, despite testimony about the symbolic nature of their action and
the hopeful intent demonstrated throughout by their nonviolent
behavior, an East Tennessee jury took less than three hours to convict
them of all charges including the sabotage charge which carries a
maximum penalty of 20 years.

Following the conviction, Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed were taken into
custody and labeled violent offenders. They were incarcerated in
remote Ocilla, Georgia, to await sentencing. The government prepared a
pre-sentencing report that recommended lengthy sentences, from 6 – 12
years, for the defendants; the US District Attorney in Knoxville has
asked the judge to reject considerations of the nonviolent nature of
the action and calls for downward departure from the sentencing
guidelines, disingenuously characterizing the defendants and seeking
penalties of at least six years—a sentence that would jail 84 year-old
Megan Rice until she was nearly 90 years old.

“In this country, we often point to other nations, like China, Russia
or Iran, where dissidents are imprisoned in order to silence their
criticisms of the policies and practices of their governments,” noted
Magno. “We like to think we are more enlightened, that in a free land
like ours such draconian measures are out-of-bounds. But this case
shows otherwise. The United States is determined to carry out its
nuclear agenda, to continue to violate its treaty obligations, to
build new bombs and new bomb plants, and they will even put an 84 year
old nun in jail for the rest of her life if that’s what it takes to
bury the truth.

“There is no mystery behind this action—the government simply knows
its nuclear policy and practices can not bear scrutiny. They are, on
their face, violations of our treaty obligations. They present a
stunning double-standard—we refuse to allow Iran even to enrich
uranium while we ourselves continue with full-scale bomb production
and are spending billions on a new bomb plant.”

Witnesses expected to testify at the sentencing hearing include John
LaForge of Nukewatch in Luck, WI; Mary Evelyn Tucker, Director of the
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University; Andy Anderson,
Veterans for Peace in Duluth, MN; Kathy Boylan of the Washington, DC
Catholic Worker community.