Cindy Sheehan Convicted of Trespassing

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cindy Sheehan, who emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of the Iraq war after her son was killed, was convicted Monday of trespassing for trying to deliver an anti-Iraq war petition to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Sheehan and three other women were acquitted of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstructing government administration. They will not face punishment as long as they stay out of trouble for the next six months, and were ordered to pay $95 in court surcharges.

They had faced up to a year in jail if convicted of all counts.

"We should never have been on trial in the first place," Sheehan said in a statement. "It's George Bush and his cronies who should be on trial, not peaceful women trying to stop this devastating war. This verdict, however, will not stop us from continuing to work tirelessly to bring our troops home."

Sheehan and about 100 other members of a group called Global Exchange were rebuffed last March when they attempted to deliver a petition containing about 72,000 signatures to the U.S. Mission's headquarters near the United Nations.

Sheehan and the defendants ignored police orders to leave and were reading the petition aloud on the sidewalk when police moved in. The women sat on the sidewalk and were carried to patrol wagons.

This wouldn't even had happened if the staff had just done their jobs but they took a boneheaded stance against Sheehan and her supporters.

After the verdict, the women immediately left the courthouse and headed for the U.S. Mission to redeliver the petitions and ask for an apology.

They were met in the lobby of the building by Richard A. Grenell, director of external affairs for the U.S. Mission, and Peggy Kerry, the mission's liaison for non-governmental organizations and sister of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

This time, Grenell took it.

"We accept petitions every single day, even without an appointment. What we don't do is accept them in front of a staged media event," he said.

And by doing that they caused an even bigger media event resulting in the convictions of 4 people who should have been allowed their right to deliver that petition in the first place.