The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 defendants received word Friday evening that Magistrate Cheesbro of the Southern District Court of Georgia, recommended that their motions to dismiss the charges including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act argument be denied.  The seven defendants, all Catholics, had testified with expert witnesses during their November 2018 evidentiary hearings and waited fourteen weeks for the final decision.  There is still no trial date set. Their statement follows.

APRIL 4, 2019 — On the first anniversary of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 (KBP7) anti-nuclear protest, supporters have launched a global petition calling for the charges against the seven activists to be dismissed and for a renewal of the anti-nuclear weapons movement. Distinguished signers of the petition include Archbishop Desmond Tutu and several other Nobel peace laureates.

The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 released the following statement on Monday: “On Friday, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the landmark Intermediate Range Nuclear Missile Treaty (INF). ‘There is a real and present danger that this action will provoke a renewed nuclear arms race and brings us closer to nuclear war,’ says Martha Hennessy, granddaughter of Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day and co-defendant of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7.”

BRUNSWICK, GA – The Kings Bay Plowshares evidentiary hearing regarding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has concluded after a second full day of testimony November 19. Five of the seven defendants testified at the federal court hearing. The activists are facing three felony charges and one misdemeanor charge with a possible 25-year sentence.  They were arrested April 5 at Naval Station Kings Bay on the Florida border after their nonviolent symbolic disarmament action of Trident submarines and the D5 missiles they carry.

Brunswick, GA –   The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Catholic anti-nuclear weapons activists and around 35 supporters spent nearly 9 1/2 hours in court yesterday in Brunswick, GA. This was the first day of a motions hearing to argue through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

An evidentiary hearing in the Kings Bay Plowshares Nuclear Disarmament Case has been scheduled for November 7 at 10 a.m. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Brunswick, GA, before the Honorable Benjamin W. Cheesbro, Magistrate. The defendants will argue on the basis of the  Religious Freedom Restoration Act that the charges against them should be dismissed, or significantly reduced…

Attorneys for the seven Kings Bay Plowshares defendants today filed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act Memo in federal court in Brunswick, GA, as their response to the court’s request for supplemental briefings that would justify the defendants’ use of  the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in their defense. The RFRA requires the government to…

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.