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The Associated Press
Nashville

Sabotage conviction of nun, peace activists overturned

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An appeals court has overturned the sabotage convictions of three peace activists, including an 85-year-old nun and a house painter from Duluth, who broke into a facility storing much of this country's bomb-grade uranium and painted slogans and splashed blood on the walls.

In a 2-1 opinion issued on Friday, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the most serious conviction against Sister Megan Rice, 66-year-old Michael Walli of Washington D.C. and 59-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed of Duluth. The court upheld a conviction for injuring government property.

On July 28, 2012, the activists cut through several fences at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge to reach the uranium storage bunker. Once there, they hung banners, prayed and hammered on the outside wall of the bunker to symbolize a Bible passage that refers to the end of war: "They will beat their swords into ploughshares."

At issue was whether the nonviolent protest injured national security. The majority opinion of the appeals court found that it did not.

"If a defendant blew up a building used to manufacture components for nuclear weapons ... the government surely could demonstrate an adverse effect on the nation's ability to attack or defend. ... But vague platitudes about a facility's 'crucial role in the national defense' are not enough to convict a defendant of sabotage," the opinion says.

The government mischaracterized the nonviolent nature of the action, said Paul Magno, a member of a group called Transform Now Plowshares that supports the activists. "We're talking about candles and bibles and prayer here, it sounds more like a protest than saboteurs," he said.

Rice is serving a sentence of just under three years. Walli and Boertje-Obed are each serving sentences of just over five years.

Magno said supporters and Boertje-Obed's wife are excited at the prospect of early releases, although it's not yet clear how much the decision will reduce their sentences.

Defendant's attorney Bill Quigley said he hopes they will be re-sentenced to time served and released from prison.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee did not immediately comment on the ruling Friday.

MPR News reporter Jon Collins contributed to this report.