Press Release July 2, 2018
MOTIONS FILED IN KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT CASE
For Release Monday July 2, 2018
For more information please contact:
Attorneys Bill Quigley: (504) 710-3074, quigley77@gmail.com
Martha Hennessy: (802) 263- 5591, marthahennessy@gmail.com
Today, Monday, July 2, 2018, attorneys filed Motions to Dismiss all criminal charges against the seven Kings Bay Plowshares in federal court in Brunswick, GA. The seven Catholic defendants are charged with three federal felonies and one misdemeanor for their actions in going onto the Naval Base at Kings Bay Georgia and symbolically disarming the massive amount of nuclear weapons at that base. The indictment and all the pleadings are online at: https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/
The request to dismiss ends the supporting memorandum with the following paragraph: “If the defendants took their actions in North Korea or Iran, the US government would hail their actions. The same US government cannot be allowed to criminally prosecute them at home. The charges should be dismissed.”
The Motion to Dismiss all charges argues several points. First,any use or threat of use of nuclear weapons of mass destruction are illegal under US law, thus disarming these illegal weapons of mass destruction cannot be illegal. Second, international law, a part of US law, also makes any use or threat of use of these weapons of mass destruction illegal. Third, the actions of the individuals charged were taken due to their belief as Catholics that nuclear weapons are both immoral and illegal and in prosecuting them the government is violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Fourth, the current President of the United States has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons and his illegal conduct has not been prosecuted, so the decision of the government to only prosecute those who protest against nuclear weapons is illegal selective prosecution.
The Motion to Dismiss is supplemented by four important declarations, available in full at https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/impact/.
Professor Francis Boyle, a renowned Harvard Law graduate and professor of law at the Illinois College of Law, advised the court that nuclear weapons are flatly illegal and the actions of defendants are in full compliance with the law.
Captain Thomas Rogers, a retired career Navy commander of nuclear armed submarines, told the court that nuclear weapons violate the principles of the laws of war and are both illegal and immoral.
Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton declared that the actions of the Kings Bay Plowshares are totally consistent with and supported by Catholic social teaching that any use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is totally immoral.
Jeffery Carter, Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, explained to the court the fact that his organization and the American Medical Association condemn any use of nuclear weapons because of the horrific impact upon millions, perhaps even billions, of people.
The Kings Bay Naval Station is home to at least 6 nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Each submarine carries 20 Trident II D 5 MIRV thermonuclear weapons. Each of these individual Trident thermonuclear weapons contains four or more individual nuclear weapons ranging in destructive power from a 100 kilotons to 475 kilotons. To understand the massive destructive power of these weapons remember that the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a 15 kiloton bomb.
The seven defendants are:
Currently incarcerated in Glynn County Jail, Brunswick Georgia:
Elizabeth McAllister: 78, Baltimore, Maryland
Stephen Kelly SJ: 69, Oakland, California
Mark Colville: 55, New Haven, Connecticut
Clare Grady: 59, Ithaca, New York
Currently released on $50,000 bond & home confinement w/ electronic ankle monitor:
Martha Hennessy: 62, Perkinsville, Vermont
Patrick O’Neill: 61, Garner North Carolina
Carmen Trotta: 55, New York, New York
#####