Reflections from Danbury by Martha Hennessy April 20, 2021 The other evening there were eight deer in the meadow below Camp, playing in the puddles of rainwater collected on the worn spots of the softball diamond. They reminded me of the goats we kept in Vermont, running, splashing with their hooves, chasing one another. While […]
Monthly Archive for April, 2021
Triduum 2021 Prison Reflections from Patrick O’Neill (transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) April 19, 2021 Holy Thursday Excerpts from letters: “The testament of your imprisonment and continued service to God is a source of encouragement to me”; “My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t mean I’m innocent” – Sherman Lee Dillon. ”I pray […]
Reflection for Easter Sunday, April 4th, 2021 3rd Anniversary of the Kings Bay Plowshares Action by Martha Hennessy – July 7th, 2017 – Treaty on the Prohibition of nuclear Weapons. Deeply concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from any use of nuclear weapons, and recognizing the consequent need to completely eliminate such […]
Winter/Spring 2021 IN THIS E-BULLETIN FR. STEVE KELLY, S.J. FREE AFTER THREE YEARS BEHIND BARS MARK COLVILLE SENTENCED TO 21 MONTHS FOR KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES ACTION FOUR KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES ACTIVISTS IN PRISON LETTERS TO THE JUDGE NEEDED FOR DRONE WARS WHISTLEBLOWER DANIEL HALE PLEASE SUPPORT IMPRISONED ANTI-NUCLEAR AND ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS – THE NUCLEAR […]
The week before his scheduled April 5 trial, Air Force veteran and former intelligence analyst Daniel Hale changed his plea to guilty on one count of violating the Espionage Act when he illegally obtained classified “national defense information” and give it to a reporter widely acknowledged to be Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept.At a March 31 hearing in federal court in Virginia, Hale affirmed he had printed 36 documents on a government computer while working for a private contractor, 23 of them unrelated to his work, and provided “at least 17 to a reporter and/or the reporter’s news outlet, which published the documents…” Eleven were classified Secret or Top Secret.
The information Hale shared revealed gross human rights violations in the preparation of target lists for deadly attacks where ninety percent of the people killed were not the intended targets.
» Read more…
Fr. Steve Kelly in front of Tacoma federal courthouse after being sentenced to time served. Photo by Dennis Apel
On April 13, in a brief, COVID-hybrid hearing in federal court in Tacoma, Washington, Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J. was sentenced to time served for violating conditions of his supervised release for a 2017 trespass conviction at the Kitsap-Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base. As of today, he had served the maximum six-month prison sentence for the original charge, and he was unconditionally released from custody.
Fr. Kelly appeared in person with his attorney Blake Kremer in the courtroom of federal Magistrate Judge David Christel, with the U.S. attorney and probation officer joining via video link. Supporters were able to listen in by phone using a number provided by the court for the public.
By the time of Fr. Kelly’s arrest in April, 2018 at the Navy’s other Trident base at Kings Bay, Georgia (the Kings Bay Plowshares action), a bench warrant had already been issued for his arrest for violating the terms of his supervised release by not reporting to the federal probation office in Washington state. Entry onto another military installation and the ensuing federal charges were additional violations addressed at today’s hearing.
» Read more…
An Appreciation of My Fellow Plowshares Friends by Martha Hennessy (Martha sent this from prison to her friend John Dear, who typed it up and shared it with us. It is a series of reflections about each of the other participants of the Kings’ Bay Plowshares). Steve Kelly, S.J. Steve has been in custody for […]
Leg Irons and Handcuffs Prison Reflections from Patrick O’Neill (transcribed and edited by J. Mark Davidson) March 30, 2021 A Health Concern On Tuesday, March 15, I was standing in my cubicle talking to my friend Mike and my cubemate Mark. Suddenly, I started feeling very hot and I took off my long-sleeved shirt and […]
March 10th Third Wednesday of Lent by Martha Hennessy Matthew 5: 17 – 19. “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” The new law is the completion of the old, not its destruction. The spirit of the law should adhere to moral duty and meet human needs. “A faith cannot renounce its roots, […]
Luz and Mark
Mark Colville, the last of the seven Kings Bay Plowshares defendants to be sentenced, learned the court’s judgement on April 9. Notwithstanding his “somewhat troubling” record of convictions for disarmament actions, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood sentenced the 59-year-old Catholic Worker to 21 months in prison, the low end of the recommended range of 21-27 months.
Colville was further ordered, as his six codefendants have been, to pay $310 in special assessments, serve three years of supervised probation, and “jointly and singly” make restitution of $33,503.51 to the U.S. Navy. He is to report to federal prison by June 8. With credit for about 15 months spent in jail before trial plus statutory good time, he expects to serve about four more months.
» Read more…