Jesuit To Stand Trial

The judge says, no!
Upcoming trial of priests charged with trespass in anti-torture demonstration will put only the priests, not torture, on trial

Trespass, not torture, will be the focus of the upcoming trial of two Bay Area priests arrested at Ft. Huachuca near Sierra Vista, Arizona, a federal judge decided this week. The two priests, Franciscan Father Louis Vitale, 74 (formerly pastor of St. Boniface Church in San Francisco) and Jesuit Father Steve Kelly, 58, (a member of the Redwood Catholic Worker Community) were arrested during a demonstration last November for kneeling to pray on the road leading to Ft. Huachuca’s gate. Police had warned the priests several times that they were trespassing on federal property. The demonstration was called to bring attention to the claim that U.S. intelligence teaches torture interrogation techniques at Ft. Huachuca. At a pre-trial hearing before U.S. Magistrate Hector Estrada in Tucson on Aug. 13, William Quigley, the priests’ lawyer, asked that the charges against the priests be dropped. Quigley further requested Estrada to rule against the prosecution’s motion to prohibit testimony about U.S. torture policies during the trial. Failing a dismissal, Quigley asked that the priests receive a jury trial. Estrada refused the request. Besides prohibiting testimony on torture, prosecutors asked Estrada to make Fr. Vitale’s prior arrests for trespass during peace protests prima facie evidence for trespass at Ft. Huachuca. Estrada, in his decision this week, denied this prosecution request, according to the Sept. 5 “Nuclear Resister Newsletter.” Prosecutors also requested that Vitale be jailed until the trial, since he broke a court order that he not break any laws before the trial. In early August, Vitale “crossed the line” at a Nagasaki Day demonstration in Nevada. Estrada has asked Vitale to appear for a hearing on his pre-trial release either later this month or in October. The defendants hoped that the trial would be a showcase for their claims that the U.S. military and intelligence practices and teaches torture techniques. However, Estrada has said no. In their defense, the priests are forbidden to introduce any evidence about U.S. torture practices, the training of the military in the same, the legality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, international law, or any political, legal, or moral issues that might have provided them a moral "necessity" for breaking the law. Estrada is expected to set a trial date later this month. If convicted, Vitale and Kelly could face up to ten months in prison.

Notice the GIRM infractions in the picture

Original article (here)