On April 1st, last year, fittingly enough, April Fool’s Day, a group of Somali pirates in open boats decided to attack the 445-foot guided-missile frigate, USS Nicholas.  The outcome was predictable.   Five pirates were captured and their boats were sunk.   At the end of November the five were convicted of piracy in a Virginia court, the first piracy conviction in an American courtroom since 1819.  Yesterday, they were sentenced to life terms plus eighty years.   In February, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the only surviving pirate from the attack on the Maersk Alabama was sentenced to 33 years and nine months for his crimes.

5 Somali pirates get life for attack on Nicholas