Biography
Michael Walli is a Vietnam War veteran (he served two tours in Vietnam, 1968–1969) who returned to the U.S. and became a Catholic Worker, eventually living at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington, D.C. With Sister Megan Rice SHCJ and former U.S. Army officer Greg Boertje-Obed, he carried out the Transform Now Plowshares action in the early hours of July 28, 2012, cutting through three perimeter fences and walking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee — one of the most heavily guarded weapons-grade uranium storage facilities in the world. They reached the wall of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, hung peace banners, splashed human blood, painted slogans, and read a statement aloud while waiting for security. The action exposed catastrophic security failures at Y-12 and led to a federal investigation.
Walli was convicted by a federal jury in Knoxville on May 9, 2013 of sabotage and depredation of government property. On February 18, 2014, U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar sentenced him to 62 months in federal prison. On May 8, 2015, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the sabotage conviction and ordered the three released for time served on the lesser depredation count. Walli was freed after roughly two years in federal custody.
Catholic Worker and Vietnam veteran turned anti-war and anti-nuclear activist. With Sister Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed, breached the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on July 28, 2012, the United States' principal storehouse of weapons-grade uranium, hanging banners and splashing blood on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. Convicted in May 2013 of sabotaging the national defense and damaging federal property. Sentenced February 2014 to just over five years in federal prison. The sabotage conviction was vacated on appeal in May 2015 and Walli was resentenced to time served.
SOA sentence versus exact duration review October 13, 2026: SOA Watch Austin's original chronology individually confirms Michael Walli's June 17, 2010 release from the 2009 SOA Four prosecution and its six-month sentence. The six-month field and release are preserved. Admission remains blank, so the converted 181-day total is cleared rather than asserting an exact served duration or calculating a missing admission backwards from release. This correction does not alter his separate Y-12 custody episode.
Missing initial detention review October 13, 2026: Original Nuclear Resister issue 167, page 1, rendered and visually inspected, confirms July 28, 2012 immediate jail booking. The original NCR follow-up explicitly identifies August 3 release for Walli and Rice. This distinct initial detention is added without changing the existing May 2013-May 2015 post-verdict interval or his separate SOA custody.
The newsletter reports that Walli began a 21-day jail sentence immediately on December 1, 2004, after ELF resentencing before Magistrate Stephen Crocker. It does not confirm completed service.
Memorial dates. NR206.
The issue reports that Michael Walli entered a not-guilty plea at the August 2, 2012 initial Transform Now Plowshares hearing before Magistrate Clifford Shirley. Walli and Megan Rice were released the following day; these were pretrial proceedings, distinct from their later sentencing.
The September 15, 2015 Transform Now Plowshares report describes Judge Amul Thapar’s resentencing of Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed and Michael Walli in the remaining depredation-of-property case after the sabotage conviction was overturned and the three were released from prison in May. Each received two years of “unsupervised” supervised probation, with three conditions: commit no local, state or federal crime; enter no U.S. nuclear facility; and report any arrest to the probation officer. The judge upheld the reported $52,000 restitution demand for the action, not an individually allocated new fine. These probation conditions are not an additional period of imprisonment. Contemporary resentencing report.
The April 30, 2013 report says Judge Amul Thapar excluded the necessity defense, Nuremberg principles, First Amendment arguments and testimony about religious or other good motives before the Transform Now Plowshares trial. He permitted testimony about intent, an element of the sabotage allegation. It also reports former Attorney General Ramsey Clark’s April 23 testimony that nuclear-weapons production violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and his distinction between treaty obligations and international law. These are reported pretrial rulings and testimony, not a custody interval or later trial result.
The January 2012 update individually identifies Mike Walli among three activists whose imprisonment concerned the July 5, 2010 Y-12 action. It describes eight months behind bars and an intended January 6 release. Its weekday and printed date are inconsistent, and scheduled release is not treated as an independently confirmed physical exit. This earlier Y-12 episode is separate from Walli’s July 2012 Transform Now action and later imprisonment. The reported eight-month interval is preserved as source narrative without adding a calculated day total.
The Nuclear Resister, January 7, 2012; The Nuclear Resister, March 22, 2012.
An August 16, 2013 publication of Michael Walli’s prison writing identifies him as then held at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, during the existing Transform Now Plowshares detention. The October 6 support update reports that Judge Amul Thapar denied the Rule 29 motion attacking the sabotage conviction and denied a new-trial motion on October 1. Its January 28, 2014 sentencing date and guideline ranges were prospective, not the actual sentencing date or a new term. No overlapping summary case is duplicated or extended.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister, source report 630; The Nuclear Resister, source report 622.
The May 15, 2015 Transform Now Plowshares update reports that the Sixth Circuit ordered Michael Walli and the other two defendants released on their own recognizance just after 7 p.m. Attorney Bill Quigley relayed the order after the government said it would not oppose release pending resentencing or seek additional imprisonment beyond time already served. This evening report explicitly awaited confirmation of physical release; it does not establish a May 15 discharge. The separately documented May 16 actual release remains the custody endpoint, and no overlapping case or additional imprisonment is created. The Nuclear Resister, May 15, 2015.
The support appeal published under a May 27, 2013 heading places Michael Walli at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, and lists the local historical register number 4444. Its body anticipates a January 28, 2014 sentencing date and appears to have been updated after publication, so the heading does not independently date that location to May 27. The local register number is not a replacement for a federal Bureau of Prisons identifier. The appeal identifies Judge Amul R. Thapar and reports the revocation of pretrial release after the May jury verdict. The anticipated hearing is not the actual sentencing date.
Sources: https://www.nukeresister.org/2013/05/27/support-needed-for-transform-now-plowshares-resisters/
The May 15, 2013 account describes the progression from the original misdemeanor trespass accusation to August 2012 property-damage charges and a December 4, 2012 superseding sabotage indictment. It also reports the exclusion of proposed necessity, international-law and nuclear-weapons justification evidence at trial. These are historical procedural descriptions; the article’s internally inconsistent action and initial-release dates do not replace the separately established individual custody endpoints.
Additional source: Contemporary procedural account.
An April 25, 2013 case update reports that prosecutors dismissed Count Two, the separate property-destruction charge under 18 U.S.C. sections 1363 and 2, before the Transform Now Plowshares trial. The remaining trial charges were depredation of government property and sabotage. Contemporary source.
The contemporary May 2013 trial package names Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeff Theodore and Melissa Kirby as prosecutors before Judge Amul Thapar. It describes the jury conviction, immediate remand and the subsequent May 10 order denying release pending sentencing. The September 23 sentencing mentioned in that report was then a future hearing date. Contemporary source.
In the report of his testimony, Walli described his work in the garden at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, D.C., including growing garlic, and his earlier service as a U.S. Army combat veteran. Contemporary source.
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. Michael Walli was among seven defendants immediately taken into custody after declining continued supervised release pending sentencing.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister, report 886; The Nuclear Resister, report 887; The Nuclear Resister, report 889.
Megan Rice’s signed July 28, 2014 letter individually placed Michael Walli at FCI McKean in Bradford, Pennsylvania while their appeal was pending. It documents a historical confinement location, not a new admission, discharge or additional custody total.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister report 545.
Walli’s first-person letter dated June 16, 2011 placed him in the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia awaiting Y-12 sentencing. The published detention-center number and address describe that historical phase rather than a current universal inmate identifier.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister report 874.
Michael Walli was jailed after the June 20, 2006 North Dakota nuclear-silo action and remained in custody through his actual February 16, 2007 release, 241 elapsed days. The eight-month imposed sentence is recorded separately from these physical custody dates.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister, No.142, No.145.
