KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A judge ordered an 83-year-old nun and two other Catholic peace activists to pay full restitution of nearly $53,000 for damaging the primary US storehouse for bomb-grade uranium.
But their sentencing Tuesday was postponed until next month after the federal courthouse in Knoxville shut down because of snow.
After four hours of argument and emotional testimony, US District Judge Amul Thapar announced that the courthouse was closing and sentencing would have to wait, probably until Feb. 18.
Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli, and Greg Boertje-Obed were convicted of sabotage last year after they broke into the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The restitution covers damage incurred at the plant when the three cut through fences and painted slogans on the outside wall of the uranium processing plant there.
The government has recommended sentences of about six to nine years in prison. More than 100 supporters from across the country had come to Knoxville on Tuesday to hear whether Thapar would heed the defendants’ pleas for leniency.
The three have argued that their actions were symbolic and meant to draw attention to America’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, which they believe to be immoral and illegal.