DENVER - Three Roman Catholic nuns who defaced a Colorado nuclear missile silo with their own blood as part of a peace protest last year were sentenced on Friday to prison terms ranging from 30 to 41 months by a judge who called them "dangerously irresponsible."

Sister Ardeth Platte, second from left, hugs an unidentified supporter, left, as sisters Jackie Hudson, third from left, and Carol Gilbert, right, look on as the three Dominican nuns head into federal court in downtown Denver on Friday, July 25, 2003, for sentencing. The women were convicted in April of obstructing the national defense and damaging government property for swinging a hammer at the silo and smearing their blood on it in the form of a cross. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn sentenced Ardeth Platte to 41 months, Jackie Hudson to 30 months and Carolyn Gilbert to 33 months. The sentences varied depending on the number of prior arrests each had for previous civil disobedience.

The Dominican nuns were convicted in April of malicious destruction of property and interfering with the national defense for their protest at the unmanned Minuteman III missile silo near Greeley, Colorado on October 6, 2002.

The three peace activists admitted breaking into the silo and pouring their blood around the site and pounding the half-ton concrete silo lid with a household hammer.

The nuns, who all testified at their trial, said the protest was a "symbolic disarmament" and did not endanger the national defense.

Blackburn said in the sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court that it was "incredible and inexcusable" that the longtime peace activists would place U.S. Air Force security teams who responded to the scene in harm's way.

"It was dangerously irresponsible," the judge said.

Frida Berrigan of New York, sits next to a protest sign during a peace rally in Civic Center Park in downtown Denver, Thursday, July 24, 2003. The rally was held to mark the scheduled sentencing of three pacifict nuns in federal court in Denver on Friday for obstructing the national defense and damaging government property for their protest acts at a missile silo near Greeley, Colo., last October. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

However, Blackburn said that the nuns' community ties and service, combined with the minimal damage done, allowed him the discretion to give them less than the maximum sentences of eight-years behind bars.

"They did not create a substantial risk of death or injury, or a threat to national security," he said.

The nuns, attired in black, declined to speak at the sentencing.

The sisters, who are in their 50s and 60s, belong to Sacred Earth & Space Plowshares, a national nuclear disarmament organization. About 200 supporters of the nuns showed up outside the courthouse with antiwar and anti-nuclear-weapons signs.

Hudson's attorney, Walter Gerash, said afterward that he was pleased that the judge was lenient on his client. She hasn't decided whether to appeal the conviction, Gerash said.

U.S. Attorney John Suthers issued a statement, saying the sentences were fair and reasonable.

"Contrary to the contention of the defendants, their lawyers and their supporters, this case was never about suppression of opposition to U.S. government policies, it was about upholding the law," Suthers said.

The judge gave the nuns until August 25 to report to federal prison, but they chose to begin their sentences immediately.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd

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