Gods of Metal Plowshares Found Guilty

JUDGE FINDS PLOWSHARES GUILTY & SENDS ACTIVISTS TO JAIL

Background:

On May 17, 1998, the 30th anniversary of the Catonsville Nine protest, five peace activists enacted the biblical prophecy of Isaiah to beat swords into plowshares at an air show outside Washington, D.C. Sr. Carol Gilbert and Sr. Ardeth Platte from Baltimore's Jonah House, Fr. Frank Cordaro from Des Moines, Iowa, Fr. Larry Morlan, from Bloomington, Ill., and Kathy Shields Boylan, from Washington, D.C.'s Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, in calling themselves the Gods of Metal Plowshares, hammered and poured blood on a B-52 bomber during the Department of Defense Open House at Andrews Air Force Base, in Prince George's County, Maryland.

After the Gods of Metal Plowshares hammered, leafletted, prayed and threw their own blood, military and civilian police placed the five religious activists under arrest. Their trial before Federal Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. began on September 22 with the defendants facing a misdemeanor count of willful injury to government property, less than $1,000 damage, which carries a possible sentence of one year in jail.

The Trial

The Trial took place on September 22 at the Federal Courthouse, Southern District, 6500 Cherrywood Lane, Greenbelt, Maryland. The defendants had agreed to a non-jury trial.

The defendants' case was seriously damaged by the court's decision that Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, from Detroit, Michael True, an expert in nonviolence, and retired Admiral Eugene Carroll of the Center for Defense Information would not be permitted to testify. In effect, the judge ruled that the defendants' motivations were irrelevant, that the efficacy of civil disobedience was an extraneous issue and that expert testimony as to the military purpose of a B-52 bomber was unnecessary.

Francis Boyle, a professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law at Urbana-Champaign, was the final witness for the defense.

Boyle outlined his vast experience as an international law expert and remarked that international law, as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, is part of the law of the land. Regarding this case, he said that the defendants read and studied the 1996 World Court advisory that addressed the legality of nuclear weapons. They acted in the belief that the B-52 bomber, because its purpose is mass extermination, violates various international treaties, including the rules of war. He also concluded that the defendants did not act out of malice but with a specific intent to prevent international war crimes.

In reaching his decision to find the five defendants guilty, Judge Williams disregarded Boyle's testimony. The defendants, in response to the judge's failure to accept international law as supreme law, refused to further cooperate with the court. They were then taken into custody.

September 23: Closing Arguments and Verdict

In the defendants' closing statement made by Sister Ardeth, she urged the judge to recognize they acted under the supreme law of the land. However, federal judges in Plowshares cases consistently ignore international law arguments. Permitting Boyle to testify in this case, but then rejecting his testimony, was seen by the defendants as a legal sham. So the defendants were unwilling to participate any further.

Each defendant spoke to explain to the court her/his reasons for noncooperation. Rev. Morlan said that they do not wish to go to jail, but it was inevitable when Judge Williams, in his summation, failed to address their argument that property, like crematoria or a B-52 bomber, does not have the right to be protected by law.

The judge admitted he did not comprehend much of Boyle's testimony. Instead he chose to protect the government's nuclear arsenal, most specifically the B-52 bomber, from being declared an illegal weapon of mass and indiscriminate destruction. He set sentencing for January 4, 1999.

Before Sister Ardeth was placed in the custody of U.S. marshals, she remarked, "We need judges with courage to accept international law." Obviously, she did not find one in this trial. As the prisoners were taken from Judge Williams' courtroom, Plowshares supporters began to sing "Beneath the Vine and Fig Tree."

Click here

for information on letters of support.