On August 15, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver affirmed the sentencing judge's downward departure from sentencing guidelines in the case of the Minuteman III Plowshares, Oliver Sachio Coe (Ko-Yin) and Daniel Sicken. The unanimous decision of the 3-judge panel means that the government will not likely appeal further. Prosecutors sought sentences of up to 57 and 71 months for Coe and Sicken, respectively, for their August 6, 1998 hammering on a Colorado nuclear missile silo. The judge sentenced the men to 30 and 41 months for sabotage, conspiracy, and destruction of property, contrasting their act as one of protest during peacetime, not sabotage during war. "In our case, Judge Miller established a gradient for the sabotage sentence, considering our so-called sabotage to be on the lower end of the scale. Of course, Sachio and I call this nuclear disarmament," wrote Sicken.

Coe was recently released to a half-way house.

Letters of support may be sent to Coe and Sicken at the addresses listed under Inside & Out. Please note that letters to Coe at the halfway house do not require his prison ID number.