THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070514
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Internationally known peace activist Philip Berrigan and three others were sentenced Wednesday for damaging an Air Force jet after a series of dramatic speeches, heated exchanges and idealistic debates involving nearly every participant in federal court.
Berrigan, a 70-year-old former Jesuit priest whose acts of civil disobedience stretch back to the 1960s, received an eight-month prison term, seven months of which he has already served since the Dec. 7 demonstration at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro.
Berrigan, who must be returned to Virginia for sentencing on another incident, also was ordered to serve four months in home confinement and three years of probation.
Speaking eloquently in Berrigan's behalf was former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who served as a legal adviser to Berrigan when the activist was convicted in April.
``One of the greatest privileges and joys of my life has been my friendship with Father Berrigan,'' said Clark, who held the Justice Department's top post under Lyndon Johnson from 1967 to 1969.
``All those years I've known and watched him, his life has been a constant, unexcelled inspiration.''
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Webb disagreed, maintaining a hard line against all four defendants and asking Judge Terrence W. Boyle to issue sentences on the higher end of sentencing guidelines.
``This is an act of vandalism, plain and simple,'' Webb said during arguments about Berrigan's sentence. Webb later referred to a defendant as a ``common criminal.''
Berrigan defended his group's decision to approach an F-15E Strike Eagle at Seymour Johnson, pound it with hammers and splash blood across its fuselage in a symbolic protest against militarism.
``Simply put, we went to make a clear statement against killing and to clog the gears of a killing machine, if only for a moment,'' Berrigan said.
The defendants are part of a loose coalition called Pax Christi - Spirit of Life Plowshares. They have committed about 50 similar acts since Berrigan participated In the first in 1980. Berrigan also was involved in a protest on the battleship Iowa in 1988 in Norfolk.
Free of restrictions imposed on them at their trial that prevented the defendants from discussing their religious beliefs or U.S. military actions, each defendant attacked government institutions as having complicity in violence and injustice around the world.
But some of the statements did not sit well with Boyle, who had spoken sternly to defendants several times in hearings since their arrest.
When Elizabeth City native John Dear, a 34-year-old Jesuit priest, called the United States the most violent nation in the world and drew analogies with Nazi Germany, Boyle struck back.
``We've just had your client give an indictment against this country and all that it stands for,'' an indignant Boyle told Joe Cosgrove, a Pennsylvania lawyer who often works for actor Martin Sheen and who represented Dear on Wednesday.
The remark kicked off an intense 20-minute debate during which Cosgrove worked to ease Boyle's anger and bring Detroit-based Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton to the stand on Dear's behalf.
``It's an express challenge to America as being despicable and somehow akin to living in Nazi Germany,'' Boyle said to Cosgrove. ``His invitation to the court to join in that characterization is appalling.''
Cosgrove noted that America had changed its mind on many issues that were once acceptable, such as slavery and the use of chemical warfare. He said the group's attack on nuclear weapons followed the same path. ``It took voices to say that this was the wrong thing to do,'' Cosgrove contended.
As Cosgrove strove to recast Dear's statement in Boyle's mind, the judge impatiently rose, poured himself a glass of water and readjusted his chair.
In a search for common ground, Cosgrove delved into his own family history, which he said goes back to the American Revolution. Finally Boyle softened.
``I just wasn't prepared to let him get the last word in,'' Boyle said near the conclusion of the exchange. ``I repudiate the characterization.''
Despite the conflict, Dear received the lightest sentence of the day: 7 1/2 months in prison. With time served, he should be released in about two weeks to continue with 4 1/2 months of home confinement and three years of probation.
Also sentenced were Lynn Fredriksson, 30, to 14 months and Bruce Friedrich, 24, to 15 months, both with relief for the seven months already served. Fredriksson and Friedrich also received 3 years of probation.
All four defendants, from the Baltimore-Washington area, were ordered to pay 10 percent of the $27,000 damage that prosecutors established was inflicted on the plane.
As with other hearings in the case, which included a mistrial in February and four separate retrials in April, the federal courthouse on Main Street brimmed with supporters from around the nation.
About 70 people were on hand for the sentencing hearings, bearing banners and singing hymns along the courthouse's front walk, watched by six Elizabeth City police officers.
Activists and U.S. marshals got along better Wednesday than they had since a chaotic courtroom demonstration prompted the Feb. 15 mistrial. During the retrials, seating had been limited and benches had sat empty while supporters lingered outside.
This time, about 40 supporters filled the benches and there were no vacant spaces.
The support group had met Tuesday for a ``Festival of Hope'' at St. Anne Catholic Church in Edenton. The church is the parish of Judge Boyle. ILLUSTRATION: The protest continues
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Stephen Dear addresses demonstrators outside the courthouse in
Elizabeth City on Wednesday. He received 7 1/2 months in prison for
his role in a Dec. protest.
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who argued on peace
activist Philip Berrigan's behalf, enters the courthouse.
KEYWORDS: SENTENCING PLOWSHARES PEACE ACTIVISTS by CNB