Nuns facing at least 6 years in prison for damaging missile silo

Frida Berrigan sits next to a protest sign during a peace rally in Denver, Thursday. The rally was held to mark the scheduled sentencing of three pacifist nuns on Friday. Story Tools

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- They have visited family and friends, gone to doctors and made the rounds of potluck suppers and peace rallies. For three Roman Catholic nuns, prison may be the next stop.

Dominican Sisters Ardeth Platte, 66, Jackie Hudson, 68, and Carol Gilbert, 55, were to be sentenced Friday for swinging a hammer at a Minuteman III missile silo and smearing their blood on it in the form of a cross.

The three nuns were convicted April 7 of interfering with the nation's defense and damaging government property. The maximum term is 30 years, but prosecutors have recommended the minimum, which ranges from six to eight.

"No judge in the country is going to give them the maximum," Denver legal analyst Andrew Cohen said. But he said U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn can't ignore sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutor Robert Brown declined to comment Thursday.

Prosecutors said the nuns, all closely aligned with the late peace activist Philip Berrigan, showed a blatant disregard for the law and that previous arrests had not deterred them. The nuns claim the Minuteman is a first-strike weapon prohibited by international law.

All three women are prepared to go to prison for their beliefs, said Bill Sulzman, their spokesman. "They have a strong spirituality that does sustain them and I think will sustain them if they get a long prison sentence," he said.

After their arrest in October at the silo on Colorado's northeastern plains, the women chose to stay in jail, refusing the government's offer to be released on their own recognizance. They were released following their convictions and set their affairs in order.

A demonstration was planned Saturday at missile sites in Colorado, said Cynda Collins-Arsenault, a community organizer and member of Code Pink, a national women's organization that is active in the peace movement.

President "Bush has said weapons of mass destruction are horrible and I agree," she said. "We haven't found any in Iraq, but we sure have lot of them here."

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