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Nun freed from jail after defacing missile silo

A nun convicted of smearing her blood on a Colorado missile silo in an antiwar protest was released Thursday after being in federal prison for more than two years.
ARDETH PLATTE
Sister Ardeth Platte, 69, smiles outside of the Danbury Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Conn., after being released on Thursday.Douglas Healey / AP
/ Source: The Associated Press

A nun convicted of smearing her blood on a Colorado missile silo in an antiwar protest was released from federal prison Thursday after spending more than two years behind bars.

Ardeth Platte, 69, and two other Dominican sisters were arrested in 2002 after they cut a chain-link fence surrounding a Minuteman III silo and used baby bottles to dispense their own blood in the shape of a cross.

The nuns were convicted of obstructing national defense and damaging government property and received prison sentences ranging from 2½ years to about 3½. Platte’s co-defendants were released earlier.

They said their protest was prompted by an imminent war with Iraq.

“The charges remain bogus,” Platte said after her release. “It was, ‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us.’ And be assured, I would never stand with this government in any kind of killing.”