Biography
Benjamin H. Sasway was a California college student who publicly refused to register with the Selective Service after registration resumed in 1980. A federal grand jury indicted him on June 30, 1982, making him the first person indicted for draft nonregistration since the Vietnam War. A San Diego jury convicted him on August 26, 1982, and he spent 40 days in custody before receiving a 30-month sentence on October 4 and being released on bond pending appeal. After the Supreme Court declined his appeal, Sasway surrendered on April 29, 1985. He was transferred to the federal prison camp at Lompoc and released on parole on September 20, 1985. His combined time in custody was 184 days.
Revolutionary Worker’s October 8, 1982 sentencing account reports that the appeals court upheld Sasway’s pre-sentence detention on the stated concern that he would continue advocating opposition to registration. It says the prosecutor and judge did not order him to register at sentencing because they considered that futile. The article corroborates forty days already spent in jail and the October 4 thirty-month sentence; those distinct actual and nominal periods remain separately recorded. Source: https://bannedthought.net/USA/RCP/RW/1982/RW175-English.pdf#page=5
