Because Federal Government Is Allowed to 'Weaponize the Law,' Plowshares 7 Found Guilty for Anti-Nuclear Weapons Protest

Seven anti-nuclear activists face up to 20 years in prison after a jury in Georgia on Thursday found the activists guilty of four counts of destruction and depredation of government property in excess of $1,000, trespassing, and conspiracy, charges that could land each member of the group in prison for up to 20 years. 

“I really think that the verdict was, frankly, reactionary,” defendant Carmen Trotta said in a statement. 

Trotta and Steve Kelly, Mark Colville, Clare Grady, Patrick O’Neill, Elizabeth McAlister, and Martha Hennessy on the night of April 4, 2018 entered the U.S. Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia and took part in a symbolic closure of the facility in protest of its housing of the base’s Trident nuclear program and then “split into three groups and prayed, poured blood, spray-painted messages against nuclear weapons, hammered on parts of a shrine to nuclear missiles, hung banners, and waited to be arrested.”

The Kings Bay Plowshares Seven hoped to use a necessity defense, claiming the omnicidal potential of the Trident program—that the weapons could end all life on the planet—made their actions a moral imperative. On October 18, Judge Lisa Wood rejected the defense and in her ruling (pdf) barred the defendants from using it or calling on expert witnesses like Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg to address the jury.

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As Common Dreams reported, Ellsberg on October 19 said he supported the group’s actions and saw the activism in Georgia as essential to stopping the potential of nuclear war wiping out life as we know it.

“I believe that omnicide, the end of civilization and most of humanity, will not be averted without a moral transformation and political mobilization that requires actions of civil disobedience—including that of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7—to inspire,” said Ellsberg.

A jury fund the group guilty within hours of closing testimony on Thursday. 

“The Pentagon has many installations—and we just walked out of one of them,” defendant Colville said after the verdict was read. “It’s a place where they weaponize the law.”