Despite very public appeals for their release by everyone from Madonna to Paul McCartney, Pussy Riot, the Russian female punk rock band arrested and jailed in March for preforming a “punk prayer’ in a Moscow church, on Friday was sentenced to two year in prison on hooliganism charges. The court found the band members ‘expressed hatred and hostility” toward Russian Orthodox believers, while a defense attorney said “This verdict is lawless.” In a statement posted on her website, Madonna said, "I protest the conviction and sentencing...the sentence is too harsh and in fact is inhumane." Meanwhile, just hours after being convicted and sentenced, the band released the new anti-President Vladimir Putin single “Putin Lights Up the Fires.”