BINGHAMTON, New York - "As a mother who knows the preciousness of children, not just mine, but
all children. I want the court to understand that before we walked into
the recruiting station [March 17, 2003] a million people had already
died in Iraq from U.S. imposed sanctions, half of them children," said
Clare Grady as she testified at her sentencing today in Binghamton
federal court.
Clare Grady, St.Patrick's Four
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Grady, one of the four non-violent peace activists known as the St. Patrick’s Four, was sentenced to six months of federal prison and ordered to pay
her share of restitution for pouring her own blood on the posters, flag and walls of a military recruiting station outside Ithaca,
NY on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, March 17th, 2003.
Grady's two daughters, Leah Sayvets, 16, and Teresa Rose Sayvets, 14,
stood in the court gallery as their mother spoke, "We are raising our
children to love God and one another. Not to kill or cooperate with
killing. To know that law is here to uphold life and not the other way
around. We would like to teach our children to act from their
conscience, responsibly, and for the greater good."
Last September, a federal jury found Clare Grady, Danny Burns, Teresa
Grady and Peter DeMott not guilty of
federal conspiracy charges, but guilty on the misdemeanor counts held
against them. The federal case was the second time the Four had been
tried for the same incident. Their state level trial ended in a mistrial
when the jury could not come to a decision, splitting their vote nine to
three in favor of the defendants. The federal prosecutor picked up the
case after it was brought to their attention by former Tompkins County
District Attorney, George Dentes.
During the federal trial last fall, Grady informed the jury about her
travel to Iraq before the war in 2002. She had met with a group of Iraqi
mothers during the trip and spoke with them through an interpreter.
After the women described the hardships of living under U.S. sanctions,
they asked Grady about her own children. When she showed them a picture
of her two daughters, the Iraqi women kissed the each of the girls in
the photo before handing it back to her. Grady then asked the jury to
consider "the love that's necessary to make that bridge."
The encounter with the Iraqi women was what drove Grady to carry
photographs of mothers and children to the recruiting station during the
act of civil disobedience that ultimately brought her, almost three
years later, into federal court in Binghamton, NY. When Grady attempted
to enter the photos as evidence for the jury during her federal trial,
the judge denied her submission. But today in court, Judge McAvoy
accepted a packet of 102 photographs with the names and ages of New York
State military who had died in Iraq from Grady.
Judge Thomas J. McAvoy stated this morning that he feared anarchy would
ensue if others followed Grady's example. Prior to pronouncing the
court's sentence on her the judge emphasized his duty to protect the
public from Grady's unlawful actions.
Grady said, "I go to jail as part of the public discourse about the war
in Iraq."
Paul Sayvets, Clare Grady's husband, was joined by dozens of his wife's
supporters today. Before being handcuffed, Grady blew kisses to the
crowd of family and friends assembled in the courtroom.
Katie Quinn-Jacobs is a freelance writer living in Ithaca, NY.
For
more information on the St. Patrick's Four, see www.stpatricksfour.org
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