An 85-year-old nun and two fellow Catholic peace activists will probably remain free after government prosecutors told defense attorneys they will not seek to have a sabotage charge reconsidered.

Sister Megan Rice was originally sentenced to three years and Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed were each sentenced to nearly five years for vandalizing the outside of a Tennessee bunker storing bomb-grade uranium.

Last month, a panel of the sixth US circuit court of appeals overturned the most serious conviction against the three. The court upheld a conviction for injuring government property.

On 28 July 2012, the activists cut through several fences at the Y-12 national security complex in Oak Ridge to reach the uranium storage bunker. Once there, they hung banners, prayed and hammered on the outside wall of the bunker to symbolize a Bible passage that refers to the end of war: “They will beat their swords into ploughshares.”

At issue during the appeal was whether the non-violent protest injured national security. The majority opinion of the appeals court found that it did not.

The activists were ordered resentenced on the remaining, lesser charge of injuring government property. They were released from prison on the grounds that their new sentences would probably be shorter than the two years they had already served.



The deadline for the government to appeal was Monday.