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  • Nun Sentenced to 35 Months in Prison for Anti-Nuclear Protest

    A Federal District Judge sentenced an 84-year-old Roman Catholic nun to 35 months in prison Tuesday for breaking into a nuclear facility on July 28, 2012.

    Sister Megan Rice was found guilty of damaging more than $1,000 worth of U.S. government property at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

    Protesters Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, and 63-year-old Michael Walli were also sentenced to five years for breaking into one of the nation’s most secured uranium facilities.

    In an attempt to protest against nuclear weapons, the trio cut through four fences and snuck past armed guards before finally making their way onto the premises.

    The vandalization went on for more than two hours. The activists used banners, spray paint, and blood to recite Biblical slogans of peace.

    One of the last properties they destroyed was a storage building that housed $548 million worth of uranium. It was in that moment that a security guard caught Sister Rice and her partners-in-crime.

    “The protesters put themselves at a high risk of losing their life in performing this act,” a National Nuclear Security Administration said, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

    However, it appears that the nun has placed herself in similar situations numerous times.

    According to The New York Times, Sister Rice joined a nunnery at the age of 18, and by the 1980s, she was a member of an anti-nuclear demonstration group. One of her most well-known punishments was serving six months in prison for kneeling down in front of a truck, blocking its way into a Nevada nuclear site.

    Evidently, the anti-nuclear activist has always been resilient to law enforcement. According to her, the government’s 70-year industry of criminalization should be of main concern.

    “We spend more on nuclear arms than on the departments of education, health, transportation, disaster relief and a number of other government agencies that I can’t remember,” she told the newspaper.

    In a closing statement to Judge Amul Thapar, Sister Rice appeared to be unapologetic. She requested to receive the maximum prison sentence.

    “Please have no leniency with me,” CS Monitor reported her saying. “To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest gift you could give me.”

    Here is an interview done by HLN:

    Image via YouTube

  • Nun Sentenced To Prison For Nuclear Weapons Protest

    An 84-year-old Catholic nun named Megan Rice has been sentenced to almost 3 years behind bars for breaking into a U.S. nuclear weapons complex to protest nuclear weapons. Rice and three other people broke into the facility together in order to stage a protest. The other two people, Michael Walli, 64, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 58, were sentenced to 5 years in prison.

    The fact that they were able to break in so easily has led many to wonder about the security of the facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and other Nuclear facilities around the country. The three protestors were charged with sabotage in May 2013.

    According to reports, the protestors were able to cut through a security fence and sneak by three other levels of security within the facility. Once inside, they felt no need to hurry and were able to hang up banners and vandalize the buildings, before they were caught by a security officer. Once caught, the protestors offered a snack to the security guard and began singing to him.

    The security breach has caused the authorities and facility workers to wonder what could have happened if someone with worse intentions would have been able to break into the facility as easily as the protestors, and had as much time to wreak havoc.

    Although Rice is much older than the other two protestors, her age was not a factor in determining how much jail time she was given. The judge sentenced her to less time because her criminal record was much cleaner.

    “(Rice) does not have the extensive criminal records the others have. Her crimes are minimal in comparison to the others,” U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar said.

    Rice will be 87 years old before she is released from prison. Do you think her sentence was fair or do you think she should not have been given a jail sentence?

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