The seven members of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, who entered the Kings Bay Navy Base in St. Marys Georgia on April 4, 2018 to protest nuclear weapons, are seen here holding a banner quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Photo: Kings Bay Plowshares 7)
Oct 16, 2020
A federal court on Thursday sentenced a Catholic priest to nearly three years in prison for trespassing on a Georgia naval base to protest U.S. nuclear weapons policy, but he could be imminently released due to time served--while on Friday another activist was sentenced in connection with the same demonstration.
National Catholic Reporter reports Rev. Stephen M. Kelly, a 71-year-old Jesuit priest, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to 33 months' imprisonment, three years' probation, and over $33,000 in restitution fees to be paid jointly with other defendants.
\u201cRev. Stephen Kelly, an activist and member of @kingsbayplow7, described himself as a "prisoner of conscience for Christ," and one who preaches against "the sin that flourishes in weapons of mass destruction."\nhttps://t.co/U0M5vCiXsy\u201d— NCR (@NCR) 1602861571
"Father Kelly, it has been clear to me you are sincere in your beliefs," said Wood. "However, I would be remiss to discount the nature of the offense that we're looking at today and the risk to safety that you knowingly undertook."
Because Kelly has already been jailed for 30 months and is eligible for 54 days of annual good behavior credit, he could be released at any time.
Kelly, a member of the Catholic peace activist group Kings Bay Plowshares 7, entered Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Marys, Georgia with six others at dusk on April 4, 2018. The group chose April 4 because it was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Nobel Peace Prize recipient who called the United States government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
The activists--Carmen Trotta, Patrick O'Neill, Martha Hennessy, Liz McAlister, Clare Grady, Father Steve Kelly, and Mark Coalville--said they wanted "to highlight what King called the 'evil triplets of militarism, racism, and materialism'" and to "make real the prophet Isaiah's command: 'beat swords into plowshares.'"
"Armed" with hammers, bottles of their own blood, crime scene tape, and an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace, the seven splashed the blood on a wall, spray-painted an anti-war slogan on a sidewalk, and hammered away at a monument to nuclear war. They caused minimal damage.
Kings Bay houses at least six nuclear submarines, each armed with 20 Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) variety. Each missile contains numerous nuclear warheads, providing a thermonuclear force multiplier and overwhelming first-strike capability.
Put simply, Kings Bay's submarines are capable of killing many millions of human beings and making life on Earth a frozen hellscape for many millions more.
McAlister spoke to Democracy Now! about the protest and the trials last October:
Kelly--who has spent more than a decade behind bars for numerous acts of peaceful protest over the course of his lifetime--told the court on Thursday that he is a "prisoner of conscience for Christ," and that he preaches against "the sin that flourishes in weapons of mass destruction."
"I answer to a higher authority in that my faith... [compels] me to respond to the needs of the poor, oppressed, [and] disenfranchised, in any locality," Kelly said in a written statement.
Kelly also invoked the Nuremberg principles--enacted in response to Nazi genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated during World War II--which established the framework of modern international law in a bid to prevent such crimes in the future.
O'Neill was scheduled to be sentenced on Friday as this article was published. While no media reports have yet appeared, Kings Bay Plowshares 7 tweeted that the 61-year-old was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a share of the $33,000 in restitution fees, with credit for some time served.
\u201cPatrick's sentence:\n- 14 months\n- Supervised release of three years\n- Restitution $33,503.51 to the US Navy (with codefendants) ($50 mo.)\n- Credit for time served (~7 weeks?)\n- Recommendation to be placed at Butner FCI \n- No fine, no interest\n- $310 special assessments\u201d— Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (@Kings Bay Plowshares 7) 1602876482
\u201c2/2 Images from outside the federal courthouse in Brunswick, GA during the sentencing of Patrick O'Neill to prison for the @kingsbayplow7 nonviolent direct action for disarmament Photos by Sarah Cool\u201d— Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (@Kings Bay Plowshares 7) 1602877803
As for the other five activists, none except McAlister--who in June was sentenced to time served plus $25 a month in fines--has been sentenced, mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
A federal court on Thursday sentenced a Catholic priest to nearly three years in prison for trespassing on a Georgia naval base to protest U.S. nuclear weapons policy, but he could be imminently released due to time served--while on Friday another activist was sentenced in connection with the same demonstration.
National Catholic Reporter reports Rev. Stephen M. Kelly, a 71-year-old Jesuit priest, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to 33 months' imprisonment, three years' probation, and over $33,000 in restitution fees to be paid jointly with other defendants.
\u201cRev. Stephen Kelly, an activist and member of @kingsbayplow7, described himself as a "prisoner of conscience for Christ," and one who preaches against "the sin that flourishes in weapons of mass destruction."\nhttps://t.co/U0M5vCiXsy\u201d— NCR (@NCR) 1602861571
"Father Kelly, it has been clear to me you are sincere in your beliefs," said Wood. "However, I would be remiss to discount the nature of the offense that we're looking at today and the risk to safety that you knowingly undertook."
Because Kelly has already been jailed for 30 months and is eligible for 54 days of annual good behavior credit, he could be released at any time.
Kelly, a member of the Catholic peace activist group Kings Bay Plowshares 7, entered Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Marys, Georgia with six others at dusk on April 4, 2018. The group chose April 4 because it was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Nobel Peace Prize recipient who called the United States government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
The activists--Carmen Trotta, Patrick O'Neill, Martha Hennessy, Liz McAlister, Clare Grady, Father Steve Kelly, and Mark Coalville--said they wanted "to highlight what King called the 'evil triplets of militarism, racism, and materialism'" and to "make real the prophet Isaiah's command: 'beat swords into plowshares.'"
"Armed" with hammers, bottles of their own blood, crime scene tape, and an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace, the seven splashed the blood on a wall, spray-painted an anti-war slogan on a sidewalk, and hammered away at a monument to nuclear war. They caused minimal damage.
Kings Bay houses at least six nuclear submarines, each armed with 20 Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) variety. Each missile contains numerous nuclear warheads, providing a thermonuclear force multiplier and overwhelming first-strike capability.
Put simply, Kings Bay's submarines are capable of killing many millions of human beings and making life on Earth a frozen hellscape for many millions more.
McAlister spoke to Democracy Now! about the protest and the trials last October:
Kelly--who has spent more than a decade behind bars for numerous acts of peaceful protest over the course of his lifetime--told the court on Thursday that he is a "prisoner of conscience for Christ," and that he preaches against "the sin that flourishes in weapons of mass destruction."
"I answer to a higher authority in that my faith... [compels] me to respond to the needs of the poor, oppressed, [and] disenfranchised, in any locality," Kelly said in a written statement.
Kelly also invoked the Nuremberg principles--enacted in response to Nazi genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated during World War II--which established the framework of modern international law in a bid to prevent such crimes in the future.
O'Neill was scheduled to be sentenced on Friday as this article was published. While no media reports have yet appeared, Kings Bay Plowshares 7 tweeted that the 61-year-old was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a share of the $33,000 in restitution fees, with credit for some time served.
\u201cPatrick's sentence:\n- 14 months\n- Supervised release of three years\n- Restitution $33,503.51 to the US Navy (with codefendants) ($50 mo.)\n- Credit for time served (~7 weeks?)\n- Recommendation to be placed at Butner FCI \n- No fine, no interest\n- $310 special assessments\u201d— Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (@Kings Bay Plowshares 7) 1602876482
\u201c2/2 Images from outside the federal courthouse in Brunswick, GA during the sentencing of Patrick O'Neill to prison for the @kingsbayplow7 nonviolent direct action for disarmament Photos by Sarah Cool\u201d— Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (@Kings Bay Plowshares 7) 1602877803
As for the other five activists, none except McAlister--who in June was sentenced to time served plus $25 a month in fines--has been sentenced, mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A federal court on Thursday sentenced a Catholic priest to nearly three years in prison for trespassing on a Georgia naval base to protest U.S. nuclear weapons policy, but he could be imminently released due to time served--while on Friday another activist was sentenced in connection with the same demonstration.
National Catholic Reporter reports Rev. Stephen M. Kelly, a 71-year-old Jesuit priest, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to 33 months' imprisonment, three years' probation, and over $33,000 in restitution fees to be paid jointly with other defendants.
\u201cRev. Stephen Kelly, an activist and member of @kingsbayplow7, described himself as a "prisoner of conscience for Christ," and one who preaches against "the sin that flourishes in weapons of mass destruction."\nhttps://t.co/U0M5vCiXsy\u201d— NCR (@NCR) 1602861571
"Father Kelly, it has been clear to me you are sincere in your beliefs," said Wood. "However, I would be remiss to discount the nature of the offense that we're looking at today and the risk to safety that you knowingly undertook."
Because Kelly has already been jailed for 30 months and is eligible for 54 days of annual good behavior credit, he could be released at any time.
Kelly, a member of the Catholic peace activist group Kings Bay Plowshares 7, entered Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Marys, Georgia with six others at dusk on April 4, 2018. The group chose April 4 because it was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Nobel Peace Prize recipient who called the United States government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
The activists--Carmen Trotta, Patrick O'Neill, Martha Hennessy, Liz McAlister, Clare Grady, Father Steve Kelly, and Mark Coalville--said they wanted "to highlight what King called the 'evil triplets of militarism, racism, and materialism'" and to "make real the prophet Isaiah's command: 'beat swords into plowshares.'"
"Armed" with hammers, bottles of their own blood, crime scene tape, and an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace, the seven splashed the blood on a wall, spray-painted an anti-war slogan on a sidewalk, and hammered away at a monument to nuclear war. They caused minimal damage.
Kings Bay houses at least six nuclear submarines, each armed with 20 Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) variety. Each missile contains numerous nuclear warheads, providing a thermonuclear force multiplier and overwhelming first-strike capability.
Put simply, Kings Bay's submarines are capable of killing many millions of human beings and making life on Earth a frozen hellscape for many millions more.
McAlister spoke to Democracy Now! about the protest and the trials last October:
Kelly--who has spent more than a decade behind bars for numerous acts of peaceful protest over the course of his lifetime--told the court on Thursday that he is a "prisoner of conscience for Christ," and that he preaches against "the sin that flourishes in weapons of mass destruction."
"I answer to a higher authority in that my faith... [compels] me to respond to the needs of the poor, oppressed, [and] disenfranchised, in any locality," Kelly said in a written statement.
Kelly also invoked the Nuremberg principles--enacted in response to Nazi genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated during World War II--which established the framework of modern international law in a bid to prevent such crimes in the future.
O'Neill was scheduled to be sentenced on Friday as this article was published. While no media reports have yet appeared, Kings Bay Plowshares 7 tweeted that the 61-year-old was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a share of the $33,000 in restitution fees, with credit for some time served.
\u201cPatrick's sentence:\n- 14 months\n- Supervised release of three years\n- Restitution $33,503.51 to the US Navy (with codefendants) ($50 mo.)\n- Credit for time served (~7 weeks?)\n- Recommendation to be placed at Butner FCI \n- No fine, no interest\n- $310 special assessments\u201d— Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (@Kings Bay Plowshares 7) 1602876482
\u201c2/2 Images from outside the federal courthouse in Brunswick, GA during the sentencing of Patrick O'Neill to prison for the @kingsbayplow7 nonviolent direct action for disarmament Photos by Sarah Cool\u201d— Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (@Kings Bay Plowshares 7) 1602877803
As for the other five activists, none except McAlister--who in June was sentenced to time served plus $25 a month in fines--has been sentenced, mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.