War protesters sentenced in federal trial

Activists known as the "St. Patrick's Four" were sentenced to prison by a federal court this past week after pouring their blood on the property of a military recruiting center as an anti-war demonstration on St. Patrick's Day in 2003. The individual sentence hearings in US District Court in Binghamton, NY, that began on Jan. 23, completed the first federal trial against war protesters since the Vietnam War. US District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy sentenced Daniel Burns, Peter De Mott, Clare Grady and Teresa Grady of Ithaca, to prison on charges of two misdemeanors each for trespassing and criminal mischief. Burns and Clare Grady received six months in federal prison, and De Mott received four months of community confinement and four months in prison because the judge was sensitive to the fact that his brother has terminal brain cancer. Teresa Grady was sentenced to serve four months in federal prison. The four, all members of the Catholic Worker movement, are also ordered to pay shares of the $958 restitution for damages caused. Each also received a $250 fine for a contempt of court charge. All four were taken into court custody immediately. "Bush and the gang got away with murder, and the murder is still ongoing in Iraq with no end in sight. Our action on Mar. 17, 2003, was an impassioned, nonviolent plea to tell the world that this war is wrong, yet we are the ones who are being punished," De Mott said the night before he was imprisoned. The federal prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney Miroslav Lovric, said in court that the sentences weren't appropriately addressing the potential harm the four activists created because they may encourage others. He asked the judge to consider a term longer than federal guidelines of two to eight months. Lovric provoked many "boos," laughs and some "bullshit"s from the courtroom of almost 100 people when he compared the four activists to a terrorist organization. The St. Patrick's Four had entered a US Army recruitment center in Ithaca's Cayuga Mall and poured four ounces of their blood on the walls, recruiting posters, military cutouts and a US flag. When a recruiting officer arrived at the center and asked them to stop, the four said they needed to finish and then prayed until police came and arrested them. In April 2004, a Tompkins County Court jury deadlocked 9"3, in favor of acquitting the four on all charges. Arguing that they couldn't receive a fair trial in Ithaca, Tompkins County District Attorney George Dentes asked the US district attorney to further prosecute the case. Beth Harris, assistant professor of politics and close friend and supporter to all of the four activists, said the fact that the first trial found them not guilty was an important statement made by the community and she disagreed with Dentes' choice to further prosecute them. "It is obvious that [Dentes] is trying to make the stakes of civil disobedience so high that people would be discouraged against speaking out," said Harris, who was arrested the same week for protesting in Ithaca. During the noisy, six-day trial which began on Sept. 19 in Binghamton, the four represented themselves and asserted that the war in Iraq is illegal. They said that though their blood pouring was normally illegal, in this case it was lawful civil disobedience because of US foreign policy. McAvoy cited the defendants for contempt for refusing to say who had drawn their blood and for repeatedly ignoring his previous order that they could not use international law in arguing their defense. Leah Sayvets, Clare Grady's daughter, watched as her mother walked away in handcuffs. "The price I'm paying by not seeing my mother is nothing like the children in Iraq are paying for the death of their mothers," said Sayvets, 16, who said she plans on following in her mother's footsteps as an activist.