Nuclear resisters found guilty of trespass at Raytheon

[Ellen Thomas]

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From: Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa <nukere...@igc.org>
Date: Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Subject: Nuclear resisters found guilty of trespass at Raytheon
To: Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa <nukere...@igc.org>

NUCLEAR RESISTERS FOUND GUILTY OF TRESPASS AT RAYTHEON

photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa

from the Nuclear Resister

Two nuclear resisters represented themselves at a September 2 bench trial before Judge Robert Forman in Pima County Consolidated Justice Court.

John Heid and Elizabeth Murray had been arrested during a prayerful nonviolent resistance action on Ash Wednesday, March 5 at the Raytheon weapons factory in Tucson, Arizona. Together with members of the Pacific Life Community, they gathered outside of Raytheon that day for a prayer vigil to protest the development and production of a new nuclear missile at the plant. They both were charged with misdemeanor trespass after continuing their prayers onto Raytheon’s property.

Before the trial began, friends and supporters joined a noon-hour vigil outside the courthouse. They held signs advocating nuclear disarmament, including the one that John and Elizabeth had carried into Raytheon on Ash Wednesday, which read “Raytheon nukes will reduce us to ashes”. More than a dozen supporters then joined the pair in the courtroom.

Trial was delayed for about ten minutes, awaiting the arrival of Raytheon’s chief of security, one of the prosecution's anticipated witnesses. He never showed up, so the only witness for the prosecution was a deputy sheriff who made the arrest and testified that the pair had in fact trespassed onto Raytheon property. After the prosecution concluded their case, Elizabeth moved to dismiss the charge because no evidence was given by the accuser, Raytheon, and she could not question them in court. The judge said the deputy's testimony was sufficient to support the charge and denied the motion. 

John Heid began his testimony with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “Mute prayer is my most powerful weapon.”

He continued, "I am a Quaker, a member of the Religious Society of Friends. We worship in silence. We are most known for our Peace Testimony, our pacifism, our anti-war activism, and our non-conscription efforts. We are no strangers to courts, jails or prisons. March 5 was Ash Wednesday… I participated in the prayer service at the gates of Raytheon and then proceeded to take my prayers further into the facility. Where one prays matters."

Taking the stand in her own defense, Elizabeth Murray secured the court's attention when she began her testimony by identifying herself as a retired career CIA media analyst. She went on to tell Judge Forman, “It’s so much easier to do nothing. So much more comfortable. So why did I bother? Why am I standing before you today? Was I hoping to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted? Yes I was. I don’t want to live in a world where death factories are permitted to operate freely in the morning, even as we see their child victims – victims of genocide, shredded to small pieces – on our evening social media feed. My faith and my moral convictions drove me to engage in an act of conscience.”

Jack Cohen-Joppa, who was with the Pacific Life Community at Raytheon in March, was called by Elizabeth Murray as their only witness. He spoke about the content and significance of each of seven photos from the scene, submitted to the Court and accepted as evidence over persistent objection from the prosecutor.

Asked first to read the sign the defendants were holding in two of the photos, Elizabeth then asked to Jack to tell the court what those words meant to him. He first name-checked "Raytheon's Nukes" as the Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) missile, noted it's projected cost and was elaborating on the analogy to the ashes of Hiroshima when the judge cut him off. 

Jack's January 2025 guest opinion about Raytheon’s nuclear weapons work published in the Arizona Daily Star was not accepted as evidence despite John having cited it as a motivating factor in his decision to take nonviolent action. 

After brief closing statements from both sides, Judge Forman took the case under advisement, promising to review the testimony and deliver a written verdict in the near future. 

A week later, letters informing the pair of a guilty verdict and an October sentencing date were put in the mail. Judge Forman wrote that “As understandable as this Court finds Defendant’s actions there is no reasonable doubt" that they each "knowingly remained on Raytheon’s private property despite being advised that [they were] on private property and multiple request to leave the property and return to public property.” 

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In April, 2020 the Pentagon named Raytheon in Tucson as the sole-source contractor for a $16 billion dollar program to develop and produce the Long-Range Stand-Off (LRSO) missile, an all-new nuclear-armed cruise missile to be launched from the wings of warplanes. Production of this missile violates the spirit and letter of the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in January 2021. 

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