Ithaca Clare Grady is among seven on trial for trespassing and defacing Naval property.

Grady was sentenced to prison in 2006 for splashing human blood in a Lansing military recruiting office.

"Only by symbolically disarming these nuclear weapons is there any hope for real disarmament," the group says to the court.

An Ithacan and six other people are on trial in federal court in Brunswick, Georgia, on charges related to an incident in which they are accused of trespassing and defacing property at a naval station in April 2018.

Clare Grady, Elizabeth McAlister, Stephen Kelly, Carmen Trotta, Patrick O'Neill, Mark Coleville and Martha Hennessy, members of a Catholic activist group Kings Bay Plowshares 7, were indicted on charges of conspiracy, destruction of property on a naval station, depredation of government property, and trespassing. The charges stem from an incident at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia.

The defendants, who range in age from mid-50s to late 70s, say they belong to the Plowshares Movement, a larger group opposing nuclear weapons who often damage weapons and military property in protest. The movement takes its name from the biblical reference to turn swords into plowshares.

The group is documenting the trial on its Facebook page.

Grady has long been active in environmental and other protests in and around Ithaca. She was among 13 people who were arrested at a 2015 protest at the gates of the Crestwood methane storage facility in the Schuyler County Town of Reading. The Ithaca protest was led by the Ithaca Catholic Worker Movement.

She was sentenced to six months in prison in 2006 for splashing human blood in a Lansing military recruiting office as a protest against war with Iraq.

Charges against King's Bay Plowshares 7

The seven protesters were arrested on April 5, 2018, following the incident at the naval base, which covers 17,000 acres in southeastern Georgia and is known as the East Coast home of Ohio-class submarines. Their trial started Monday.

About 9,000 people work at the base, which has six Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines and two Ohio-class guided-missile submarines.

According to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Georgia, the group cut a padlock on a gate in the perimeter fence surrounding the naval submarine base.

After cutting the padlock, Kelly, McAlister and Trotta cut holes in the wire and chain link fence surrounding a restricted area and entered the restricted area, the indictment stated. Grady and Hennessy spray-painted the entryway of a building.

Colville and O'Neill hammered and spray-painted a missile display and removed letters from a sign in front of the building, according to the indictment and King's Bay spokesman Scott Bassett.

Why the King's Bay Plowshares 7 are protesting

"We see that nuclear weapons kill every day by their mere existence," the group wrote in an email.

The group says they carried hammers and used baby bottles containing their own blood in order "to enact and embody the prophet Isaiah's command to: 'Beat swords into plowshares.'"

"They hoped to draw attention to and begin to dismantle what Dr. (Martin Luther) King called, 'the triple evils' of racism, militarism, and extreme materialism," the email stated. The email from last year stated the group expects to be acquitted.

Bassett could not confirm if the group actually used blood when they defaced property because tests were not conducted.

Although property was defaced, the group never used violence during their protest, Bassett said.

"At no time was there any threat to a military asset, personnel or a submarine," Bassett said.

King's Bay Plowshares state case

The group is arguing the defense of necessity in court, stating they chose the "lesser of two evils" and that they "believed and acted reasonably to prevent imminent harm."

"Only by symbolically disarming these nuclear weapons is there any hope for real disarmament," a court notice states.

In a response to the charges, the group filed a document stating jury instruction "omits critical wording, misstates the law, and is potentially misleading to the jury."

The group argues their charges omit the wording "willfully and maliciously" in how they should be accused of taking action. It appears the group believes they would be able to provide a better defense for themselves if the accusations included this wording.

To defend against the accusations, the defendants are providing a religious argument for their conduct.

"Performing a nonviolent religious exercise is certainly relevant to determining whether that exercise was 'malicious,' in the sense of 'doing something with an evil purpose or motive,' and the Defendants are entitled to have the jury take into account the religious nature of the Defendants' conduct," states a court document showing the group's response to the charges.

Other court records state the group wants to present experts in the trial who will testify about religion, morality, international law and the dangers of nuclear weapons. These witnesses include two professors and a Catholic bishop.

Bobby Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, filed an opposition to response document stating the defendants should not be allowed to call those witnesses because the testimony would be irrelevant and would confuse or mislead the jury.

"The thrust of the testimony is to distract the jury from the issue of whether Defendants’ committed the offenses and would instead improperly bring the issue of ‘justification’ into the case," the opposition document states. "The testimony would pose a serious risk that the jury will be confused as to the relevance of the Defendants’ religious beliefs and the extent to which these beliefs excused their conduct."

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