![]() ![]() In 2005, the Supreme Court struck down the mandatory application of these guidelines, but judges who eschew them must explain their decisions and are subject to reversal under an abuse of discretion standard. Sentencing Commission and directed it to create fact-based guidelines that, when mandatorily applied, would result in greater sentencing uniformity. This system remained in place for a century despite serious disparities in sentences, wherein individuals who engaged in the same criminal activity would receive significantly different punishments. Specific terms of imprisonment were replaced with indeterminate sentences, with set maximums and sometimes mandatory minimums, terms and the possibility of parole (early release) based on an inmate’s rehabilitation. In the 1800s, legislators determined “ the punishment should fit the offender, and not merely the crime.” Our earliest federal laws imposed fixed sentences for most crimes. ![]() What remains to be seen is whether the defendants’ faith will affect their sentences.Ĭongress determines the sentencing options for every federal crime. did not require dismissal of the charges, it precluded the jury from hearing the defendants’ religious freedom defense. Once the trial court ruled that the First Amendment and R.F.R.A. grounds because the government has a compelling interest in protecting its property from destruction and its military bases from unauthorized intrusion. The trial court rejected the defendants’ pretrial motions to dismiss the charges on R.F.R.A. They were treated the same as any other intruder on government property. The obvious religious motivation of the Plowshares activists did not insulate them from criminal prosecution. does permit the enforcement of laws that substantially burden religious freedom when the government has a compelling interest and has chosen the least restrictive means to protect that interest. Nor were they offered any protection by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has insulated religious actors under other circumstances-for example, exempting employers from the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act. The First Amendment prohibits the government from applying different rules to religious believers, but the Plowshares defendants were treated the same as any other intruder on government property. King that the evils of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are inexorably linked. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination as the date for their protest because they agree with Dr. He has stated, “We cannot be fully human while one nuclear weapon exists,” and he sees the symbolic destruction of nuclear weapons as “showing a way out of the escalation.” The activists selected the 50th anniversary of Dr. Steve Kelly, S.J., the only Catholic priest among the seven, has spent a lifetime living and working with impoverished people. ![]() Grady in both actions, has been an anti-war activist since she and her late husband, Philip Berrigan, destroyed draft cards during the Vietnam War. Elizabeth McAlister, a co-defendant to Ms. Clare Grady, who describes her Plowshares activism as a sacramental response to God’s call to disarm, was arrested and convicted in 1983 for her participation in a Plowshares protest at Griffiss Air Force Base. Several of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, including Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, Martha Hennessy, are members of Catholic Worker communities. The activists are grandparents, parents and caregivers. As reported in America, the “Kings Bay Plowshares 7” defendants, arrested for acts of civil disobedience intended to protest the nation’s continuing nuclear weapons program, were found guilty on Oct. ![]()
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