Friends,
On August 9th at Homewood Friends
Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Patrick O’Neill will explain
what happened at the August 7 hearing. While Elizabeth McAlister
and two others remain in jail, they will attend the hearing. Please let me
know if you want to get more information about this year’s Hiroshima-Nagasaki
Commemoration scheduled for August 6 and 9. Kagiso, Max
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- JULY 31, 2019
CONTACTS: Mary
Anne Grady Flores, Ithaca, NY, 607-280-8797, gradyflores08@gmail.com
Bill Ofenloch, NYC, 212-369-1590, billcpf@aol.com
Kings Bay
Plowshares to Urge Dismissal of Charges in U.S. District Court August 7
BRUNSWICK, GA – The seven members of the
Kings Bay Plowshares will make their oral arguments in federal district court
next week.
On August 7 the anti-nuclear activists will
go before U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Wood at 10 a.m. As many as 100
supporters of the activists are expected to travel from throughout the country
to attend the hearing, which could last more than one day.
A number of the activists' supporters are
planning to fast from August 6 through 9, the 74th anniversaries of the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. They have planned vigils and other
events in Brunswick and at the gate of Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Mary's, GA
in support of the seven activists and their plea for the abolition of nuclear
weapons. More information on the activities throughout the week will be
available at www.kingsbayplowshares7.org.
This hearing
will mark the first time the seven will be together in court since last
November. The primary focus of their oral argument will be to explicate their
objections to the 80-page report released in April from Magistrate Judge
Benjamin Cheesbro. He had recommended the denial of defense motions to dismiss
the charges based on the evidence presented concerning the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act.
Defendants have
responded with written objections, and Judge Wood will hear from the defense
and the government regarding the objections. Cheesbro's report, although a
denial, concluded that the seven KBP defendants did perform "prophetic"
and "sacramental" acts of "symbolic denuclearization" on
April 4, 2018 as an extension of their "sincerely held religious
beliefs."
In the meantime,
the Plowshares defendants also plan to file motions asking Judge Wood to
reconsider pretrial release without conditions for Fr. Steve Kelly, Mark
Colville and Elizabeth McAlister, and for the removal of ankle monitors and
pretrial curfews for the remaining defendants.
A Kings Bay
Plowshares 7 global petition calling for
the dismissal of charges is being circulated and has been signed by thousands
along with over 100 world-renowned leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Beatrice Fihn, Mairead McGuire, and other Nobel laureates, Martin Sheen, Angela
Davis, Phyllis Bennis, Rev. Dr. William Barber, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Oscar
Lopez Rivera, Noam Chomsky, Dan Ellsberg, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, and Huwaida Arraf.
The list of prominent signers available at: https://www.kingsbayplowshares7.org/global-petition.
For a copy of
the decision and copies of the defendants' statements to the court and their
legal motions please go to: https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/about/rfra-evidentiary-hearing/
SPECIAL EVENT
AUGUST 11: Four of the Plowshares activists
will make a rare public appearance
together in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, August 11 at 5 p.m. at Busboys and
Poets Cafe, 14th & V sts., in D.C.. The event will be broadcast live on the
Kings Bay Plowshares' Facebook page. CODE PINK,
Busboys & Poets Cafe, and Pax Christi - Pentagon Area are co-sponsors of
the event.
###
EMAIL: Media: kbp7media@gmail.com
General: kingsbayplowshares@gmail.com
WEBSITE: www.kingsbayplowshares7.org
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/kingsbayplowshares7
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment