Following a ruling in the fall of 1985 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in favor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on certain issues (including the exclusion of the justification defense), the Plowshares Eight case was returned to the Superior Court Appeals Panel. In December 1987, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania refused their appeal, but ordered a re-sentencing. This ruling, however, was appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In February 1989 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied a hearing of any further issues in the case, and on October 2, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would not hear the Plowshares Eight appeal. On April 10, 1990, the Plowshares Eight were resentenced by the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in Norristown and, with neither the prosecutor nor General Electric making any recommendations or asking reparations, paroled for up to 23½ months in consideration of time already served in prison. Judge James Buckingham considered statements by the defendants, attorney Ramsey Clark, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, and Professors Richard Falk and Howard Zinn, placing the crime in the context of the common plight of humanity, international law, America's long tradition of dissent, and the primacy of individual conscience over entrenched political system.
