In May, a pro bono team from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe overturned the sabotage convictions of an 82-year-old Catholic nun and two army veterans who in 2012 had cut through fencing at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge nuclear complex to spray-paint anti-war slogans and post biblical phrases.
Federal prosecutors first charged Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed with trespassing and injuring government property. After they declined to plead guilty, the government filed a more serious Sabotage Act charge. After a 2013 trial, Rice was sentenced to more than three years in prison. Walli and Boertje-Obed were given more than five years apiece.
