Biography
Sister Jacqueline 'Jackie' Hudson OP was a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids and a longtime anti-nuclear organizer with the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington. With her two longtime partners-in-action Sisters Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte, she carried out the Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares II action on October 6, 2002, cutting through the perimeter fence at a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silo near New Raymer, Colorado, hammering on the silo cover, and pouring their own blood. Hudson was convicted with the others in April 2003 and sentenced on July 25, 2003 to 30 months in federal prison; she served at FCI Pekin alongside Sister Carol. After her release in 2005 she returned to Ground Zero organizing and was arrested again at Bangor multiple times in subsequent years. She died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at age 76.
A September 2019 Global Sisters Report retrospective dates the Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares II sentencing to July 2003. It reports 30 months imposed on Jackie Hudson, with the court also ordering $3,080 restitution for the action and three years of probation for each defendant. These are judicial terms, not measured completed custody durations.
The June 11, 2011 report describes Jackie Hudson’s treatment during post-conviction detention in the Y-12 trespass proceedings. It reports severe pain beginning May 28 at Irwin County Detention Center and delayed emergency evaluation on May 31, after approximately sixty hours. It says that, after her June 8 arrival at the Knox County detention facility, she was sent to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The report attributes treatment for pneumonia and stabilization of kidney function to hospital staff. It also describes Judge H. Bruce Guyton granting a medical-release petition contingent on Hudson accepting conditions, followed by her attorney obtaining her signature at the hospital. Hospital transfer is not treated as release from legal custody, and the report does not independently establish an unambiguous calendar release day, hospital-discharge day or completed detention total.
Contemporary reports of the May 11, 2011 Y-12 trial describe a federal jury trespass conviction arising from the July 5, 2010 action in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Judge Bruce Guyton presided, and Jeff Theodore and Melissa Milliken acted for the prosecution. Jackie Hudson was among seven defendants immediately taken into custody after declining continued supervised release pending sentencing. A June 3 update reports Jackie Hudson transferred to the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia on May 28.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister, report 886; The Nuclear Resister, report 887; The Nuclear Resister, report 889.
The Nuclear Resister’s organizer legal roundup individually names Jackie Hudson among the thirteen Y-12 resisters jailed after the July 5, 2010 action and released on recognizance on July 6. After the May 11, 2011 jury verdict, Jackie Hudson was remanded again and physically released on June 10, 2011. These are two separate custody intervals, July 5–6, 2010 and May 11–June 10, 2011, excluding the intervening bail gap. Their dated intervals sum to 31 elapsed days; no continuous confinement across the bail gap is implied. Her release followed serious illness. She later died on August 3, before the September sentencing hearings; no September prison sentence is attributed to her.
Source: The Nuclear Resister, organizer report and later legal updates for the July 2010 Y-12 action.
An obituary written by Sue Ablao records that Jacqueline Marie Hudson was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on November 19, 1934. Obituary and memorial tributes.
Six months served for the Wurtsmith action
In her memorial, Jackie Hudson’s longtime partner Sue Ablao states that Hudson had served a six-month sentence for an Easter morning Plowshares action at Wurtsmith Air Force Base before their 1993 move. The account does not establish exact dates for that completed prison stay. Sue Ablao’s memorial.
