Three Catholic nuns have been sentenced to at least two and a half years in prison for vandalizing a nuclear weapons silo as an antiwar protest

Christian Century, August 23, 2003

* Three Catholic nuns have been sentenced to at least two and a half years in prison for vandalizing a nuclear weapons silo as an antiwar protest. The three, all Dominicans, were arrested October 6 at a silo in northeast Colorado after cutting through a fence and entering a Minuteman III site, bashing the silo with hammers and using their blood to paint a cross on it.

Officials say they caused at least $1,000 in damage. The nuns, Jackie Hudson, 68, Ardeth Platte, 66, and Carol Gilbert, 55, had until August 25 to go to prison but chose to go immediately, the Associated Press reported. Despite their prior arrest records (Hudson, five times; Platte, ten times; and Gilbert, 13 times), U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn departed from sentencing guidelines, which call for a minimum of six years and a maximum of 30 years. An outpouring of support for the nuns followed the sentencing as hundreds of demonstrators gathered at missile silos in Colorado and Nebraska to carry on the nuns' antiwar efforts.