[Peace-discuss] Anti-War Protestors Face Federal Conspiracy Charges

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This case suggests that the federales are worried about
anti-war protests, especially regarding recruiting.  That may
be helpful as we consider what we should be doing.  --CGE]

   June 17, 2005
   Antiwar protesters face federal conspiracy charges
   By CLAIRE SCHAEFFER-DUFFY

The U.S. federal government is prosecuting four Catholic 
peace activists from Ithaca, N.Y., after a state court jury 
refused to convict them last year for their antiwar protest 
at a local U.S. military recruiting station. The federal 
charges made against the activists include "conspiracy to 
impede an officer of the United States," a crime punishable 
by up to six years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

"The federal government is clearly trying to make an example 
of these people and to intimidate future nonviolent 
protestors by charging these folks with conspiracy," said 
Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University, New 
Orleans, and an advising attorney for the activists.

On March 17, 2003, in protest of the impending U.S. invasion 
of Iraq, Danny Burns, Peter DeMott, and sisters Clare and 
Teresa Grady poured small bottles of their own blood on the 
walls, floor and an American Flag in the foyer of a military 
recruiting center in Lansing, N.Y.

Charged with criminal mischief, the activists, who have been 
dubbed the St. Patrick's Four, spent four days in jail and 
in April 2004 were tried at the Tompkins County Courthouse. 
During their weeklong trial, the defendants, all of whom 
have children, said they carried out their protest as 
Catholics and parents who wanted to warn members of the 
military and potential recruits about the illegality and 
immorality of the war in Iraq.

"As parents, we know the love of our children and hold 
deeply the belief that we are all God's children. It is 
never OK to kill another of God's children and it is 
especially grievous to send one's children, our children to 
another land to kill other children," said Clare Grady, a 
mother of two.

The jury voted 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal, leading some to 
conclude the case of the St. Patrick's Four was closed. But 
in February, a federal grand jury charged the four 
activists, all of whom were arrested during a previous 
demonstration at the Lansing recruiting station, with two 
counts of criminal trespass, destruction of government 
property and conspiring to induce "by force, intimidation 
and threat, officers of the United States to leave the place 
where their duties as officers of the United States are 
required to be performed."

Last month, Thomas J. McAvoy, senior U.S. district judge for 
northern New York, rejected the defendants' motion for 
dismissal and set a trial for Sept. 19 in Binghamton, N.Y. 
In his May 8 decision, McAvoy also ruled the defendants 
would not be allowed to cite international law as a 
justification for their actions at the recruiting station.

"This court offers no opinion on the war in Iraq as it is 
entirely irrelevant to this matter. Assuming an illegal war, 
it does not provide a justification for violating the 
criminal laws of the United States," he wrote.

It is not clear who requested federal prosecution for the 
St. Patrick's Four. McAvoy denied the defendants request for 
"a copy of all communications" between state and federal 
prosecutors. The office of Ithaca District Attorney George 
M. Dentes, who closed the case at the state level, said it 
could not comment on a trial that was not in their jurisdiction.

Claire Schaeffer-Duffy is a freelance writer living in 
Worcester, Mass.

National Catholic Reporter, June 17, 2005