Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Nuns Risk More Jail For Refusing To Pay Restitution To Air Force
In Denver, Colorado, a federal judge has rejected a proposal by three nuns that they be excused from paying restitution to the U.S. Air Force for damage they caused in a demonstration against U.S. nuclear policy. According to this week's Denver Post, Sisters Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson, who have already served substantial prison time for obstructing national defense and damaging government property, seek to engage in community service work instead of paying $3,082 for the damage they caused in cutting through a chain link fence at a missile silo. The nuns object on conscientious grounds to paying any money to the military because of the uses the military would make of the funds. That refusal may mean they are returned to jail. [Thanks to How Appealing for the lead.]posted by Howard Friedman @ 9:20 AM Religion Clause, Howard M. Friedman, Professor of Law, Emeritus, University of Toledo, College of Law
October 24, 2006
Sentencing Law and Policy
Sentencing (Nun)sense
Thanks to this post at How Appealing, I see that the federal sentencing system is about to render some more swift and certain federal sentencing justice on another set of hardened criminals — namely, three nuns convicted of hurting national defense when they protested U.S. nuclear policies at a missile silo. Here are more details from this story in the Denver Post:
Since submitting the plans to do community-service work in lieu of paying restitution, the nuns say they've continued work to help the poor and promote peace that they began in prison. They figure they've done more than 148 years of combined community service, including counseling inmates and raising $600,000 in charitable contributions for literacy programs, soup kitchens and aid for victims of disasters.
They asked [US District Court Judge Robert] Blackburn whether they could continue that work rather than paying the Air Force for the damage they did to the site of the silo. The three were convicted in 2003 of obstructing national defense and damaging government property. During a protest rally in 2002, they cut through a chain-link fence at a silo northeast of Denver that contained a Minuteman III missile. Platte received a 41-month sentence and was released last December. Hudson served 30 months, and Gilbert served 33 months — in different prisons.
Blackburn decided not to accept their plans "after careful consideration" of the proposals "and the government's response," he said in an order dated Oct. 18. Federal prosecutors have insisted that the nuns make amends directly to the Air Force.
Someone should be sure to tell all the Whoopi Goldberg fans pining for Sister Act 3 that we may now have the perfect script in development. (But, of course, Whoopi fans know it would be hard for any script to live up to Sister Act 2 .)
Post a comment at the Sentencing Law and Policy Site