U.S. District Judge Walker Miller was unhappy with the prospect of sentencing Sachio Ko-Yin and Daniel Sicken to 5-8 years in prison last January, the terms recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.  “They didn’t put a bomb in a bomber,” he said.

He postponed sentencing to consider written arguments for and against a sentence lighter than recommended for the men, known as the Minuteman III Plowshares.  Ko-Yin and Sicken commemorated the 53rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, last August 6 by using sledgehammers to symbolically disarm an active U.S. Air Force Minuteman III nuclear missile silo in northeast Colorado.

When the Denver courtroom reconvened on February 18, the judge had accepted the principle of “gradations of offense.”  Thus the sentencing guidelines for conviction on the charges of sabotage, conspiracy and destruction of government property were reduced from 63-97 months to 30-41 months.  Ko-Yin was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, and due to his longer record, Sicken was sentenced to 41 months. Both men were also ordered to pay $21,299.40 in restitution, or perform 30 hours per month community service for three years of supervised release.  Sicken and Ko-Yin repeated their earlier assertions that their actions were morally and legally justified.  Byron Plumley, of the American Friends Service Committee, said “The outcome represented the reality that legal and moral action are not the same; as the court upheld the nuclear policy of the United States.”

Sicken and Ko-Yin were transferred to federal prisons in Pennsylvania at the end of April, where they are expected to serve out their sentences.


Letters of support can be sent to Daniel Sicken #28360-013, FPC Lewisburg, P.O. Box 2000, Lewisburg, PA 17837; and [his legal name] Oliver Sachio Coe #28361-013, Unit AD, FPC Allenwood, P.O. Box 1000, Montgomery, PA 17752-9718.
Contributions for both prisoners’ commissary accounts should be sent to (and checks made payable to) their primary support person, who will keep accounts and prevent any accumulated donations from being taken from their prison account to pay restitution.  For Sachio Ko-Yin, send contributions to Melissa Jameson, 10 East Ridgewood Ave., #19, Ridgewood, NJ 07450.  For Daniel Sicken, send contributions to Carol Belluci, RR1 Box 171, Windham, VT 05359-9503.