Margaret McKenna

Released
Date of birth:1940
Date of death:22. 04. 2026
Gender:Female
Race:White
Era:1980s
Time Imprisoned:
3 Months 10 Days
Support
Anti-Nuclear Catholic Worker Movement
Margaret McKenna

Biography

Religious sister; took part in the 1988 Nuclear Navy Plowshares aboard the USS Iowa at Norfolk Naval Station, VA.

Separate Nuclear Navy Plowshares custody episodes

The original August 1, 1988 Revolutionary Worker, printed page 4, names Margaret McKenna among the four held since the April 3 action and reports her July 13 sentencing and actual release to supervised probation. The initially announced July 14 group hearing is not substituted for her actual day. The movement's historical chronology reports a later March 1989 probation-related sentence, reduced by credit for earlier confinement to an order for twenty additional days. Those are ordered days, not verified actual service. The chronology's reference to July 1989 for the original sentencing conflicts with the contemporary 1988 report and is not used. Exact custody endpoints for the later episode remain unknown; no continuous interval spanning probation is inferred. The existing identified photograph is retained.

Source: individual memorial entry in The Nuclear Resister, issue 208.

The Nuclear Resister, issue 208.

Cases

Norfolk Naval Station (USS Iowa) — Nuclear Navy Plowshares
Charges: Criminal trespass
Arrested: Apr 3, 1988
Sentenced: Jul 13, 1988
Incarcerated: Apr 3, 1988
Released: Jul 13, 1988
Sentence: Time served followed by two years of supervised probation. The original August 1, 1988 Revolutionary Worker, printed page 4, reports McKenna actually released at her July 13 sentencing, after detention since the April 3 action. Movement chronology additionally reports 240 hours of community service and a military-installation restriction. July 14 was an earlier scheduled group sentencing date, not her actual individual sentencing. Her later March 1989 probation-related sentence is recorded separately; the intervening release must not be counted as continuous imprisonment.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Virginia
Charges: Probation-related sentence following the Nuclear Navy Plowshares prosecution — refusal to cooperate with probation conditions
Sentenced: March 1989
Sentence: The movement's historical chronology reports a four-month sentence in March 1989, with earlier pretrial confinement credited, leaving an order to serve twenty additional days. Twenty days was the remaining ordered jail term, not merely twenty days of credit and not independently verified actual time served. March 1 is a month-precision storage placeholder; exact sentencing, recommitment, and release days remain unresolved. This is distinct from the April 3–July 13, 1988 initial detention.

Related Cases

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