Editing Sara Jane Olson (section)

===Sentencing in explosives charges===
On December 3, 2001, Judge Fidler offered to let Olson testify under oath about her role in the case. She refused. He said, "I took those pleas twice ... were you lying to me then or are you lying to me now?" and denied her request to withdraw her plea.

Observers expected her to serve three to five years, but on January 18, 2002, she was sentenced to two consecutive 10-years-to-life terms.<ref name="MPR4"/> At Soliah's 2002 sentencing hearing on the bombing, police officer John Hall,<ref name="foxnews"/> who had been in the car parked over the bomb, talked about a little girl who stood feet away with her family:
{{blockquote|Your honor, it horrifies me to think that the lives of dozens of innocent people, like that child in the window [would have ended] in an instant had the defendant and her co conspirators successfully carried out their terrorist acts.<ref name="MPR4">{{cite web|url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200201/18_stoltzef_olsonsentence/|title=Ex-fugitive Sara Jane Olson sentenced to 20 years to life|website=Minnesota Public Radio|date=January 18, 2002}}</ref>}}

Fidler said that under California law, the Board of Prison Terms could later reduce the sentence.<ref name="MPR4"/> Olson's lawyers asserted that due to discrepancies between 1970s laws and current California laws, Olson would most likely serve five years, which could be reduced to two years for good behavior.<ref name="LAWeekly3"/> The Board of Prison Terms did later change the sentence.

At Olson's sentencing hearing, her teenage daughter Leila, her pastor, and her husband spoke in her defense. Her mother testified on the stand that Olson had never been part of the SLA. She criticized prosecutors and police, who she asserted had harassed the family.<ref name="MPR4"/>