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 In a 2-1 decision last Friday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals reversed sabotage convictions against Megan Rice, 85, and
U.S. Army veterans, Michael Walli, 66, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 59.
The panel majority found that the three lacked the necessary intent
for a violation of the federal Sabotage Act for the break-in at the
Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, an incident that
embarrassed U.S. officials and prompted security changes.
Attorney Bill Quigley said their legal team asked the court on
Thursday for their immediate release, arguing that the two years
they had already spent in prison was longer than what they would be
sentenced for on the remaining charges.
Quigley, who is also a law professor at Loyola University in New
Orleans, said the court ordered their immediate release on Friday
until a formal resentencing.
"There wasn't any dispute that if they are not guilty of sabotage,
they should be out of jail," Quigley said.
He added, however, that while federal prosecutors did not
necessarily oppose their release, they still had time to appeal the
court's reversal.
A representative for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Knoxville,
Tennessee, was not immediately available for comment.
The court upheld their convictions for the less serious crimes of
injury to government property.
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The three were convicted of cutting fences to get into the facility
on the night of July 28, 2012, and they admitted to spray painting
peace slogans and hanging banners. When a guard confronted them,
they offered him food and began singing.
Prosecutors had contended the break-in at the primary U.S. site for
processing and storage of enriched uranium disrupted operations,
endangered U.S. national security and caused physical damage.
The three were convicted by a jury in May 2013: Rice was sentenced
to three years and the two others to five years.
At the time of her sentencing in February 2014, Rice had asked the
judge not to take her age into consideration and that to spend the
rest of her life in prison would be the "greatest honor."
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Robert
Birsel)
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