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July 16, 1985, Richard Miller, involved in work with the poor in Des Moines, Iowa, began dismantling a section of railroad track from the railroad spur leading from U.S. Department of Energy's Pantex Nuclear Weapons Assembly Plant in Amarillo, Texas to a main line of the Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. After first taking extensive precautions to prevent accidental derailment and avoid personal injury, he labored with railroad tools for seven hours, removing a 39-foot section of rail. Pointing out the connection between the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz and the Pantex factory, which is the final assembly point for every nuclear weapon made in the U.S., he put up a banner that read: "Pantex=Auschwitz - Stop the Trains." He further stated: "At Auschwitz the trains carried the people to the crematoria; at Pantex the trains carry the crematoria to the people." Charged with "wrecking trains" and destruction of national defense materials, he underwent a jury trial in Federal Court and was convicted. On November 8, 1985 he was sentenced to two four-year sentences to run concurrently. He was released from prison in February 1989 upon completing his sentence.
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