From courtroom to prison: The journey of an SOA witness

by Steve Clemens

Trial and Sentencing. I expected to receive the maximum sentence of six months in a federal prison (for nonviolent direct action at the School of the Americas facility in November). My sentence of half that amount makes me feel like I got off easy. The government prosecutors did not certify the prior arrest/conviction records of defendants, and thus could not include them for consideration at sentencing. Therefore, my life of “crime” was not in evidence, other than my “Ban and Bar Letters” for prior trips “crossing the line” at Ft. Benning, Ga.

It seemed at times that Judge G. Mallon Faircloth had the Biblical disease of “a hardened heart.” For six years he has heard testimony from principled resisters about the nature of the school and about their witness acting on behalf of the victims of torture. Hearing defendants of all ages (our group ranged from 19 to 81 years old) speak from the heart about their commitment to nonviolence, only to continue to send nuns, priests, students, and others to prison must take a toll on one’s soul.

The Idolatry of the Law. The focus of the prosecutors was always “Did you cross the line?” rather than “Why did you cross the line?” The Government was only interested in documenting illegal presence on the base, not whether something illegal is being taught there. The judge made a pre-trial ruling prohibiting defendants from using International Law and/or Necessity as a defense, despite a well-reasoned 30-page brief from defendant lawyers. What would he have said if principled resisters like Martin Luther King or Susan B. Anthony or members of the Boston Tea Party had stood before him?
The courtroom discourse of deterrence seems to go hand-in-glove with our present national preoccupation with the efficacy of terror and tor