Biography
Dwight Lawton was a retired business officer, Navy veteran and farmworker-rights advocate. Jailed in 1998 following the School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning.
Death-date source
- Pinellas County probate notice for Dwight Lincoln Lawton Jr. — gives July 6, 2024 as his date of death. The full name, St. Petersburg jurisdiction, and independent funeral-home notice match the peace activist in this profile.
- Royal Palm North Funeral Chapel notice — independently identifies Dwight Lawton Jr. of St. Petersburg as deceased in 2024.
Birth-year source
- SOA Watch prisoners-of-conscience chronology — identifies Dwight Lawton as 67 among the November 1997 Fort Benning defendants, supporting 1930 as his birth year.
The April 27, 1998 petition by clemency counsel Debra K. Hannula places this defendant among the January 1998 Fort Benning illegal-re-entry convictions before Judge Elliott, carrying six months and a $3,000 fine. Its January 22 trial/sentencing account differs by one day from an earlier January 21 news report, so the new sentencing field uses month precision rather than choosing an unresolved day. The individual biography confirms March 23, 1998 prison entry. The biography describes his 1953–1956 naval service, later commercial-truck leasing and sales work, and farmworker advocacy. These records concern a request for clemency; they do not establish that a pardon or commutation was granted.
Clinton Presidential Library, individual biography PDF page 41; petition pages 27–32.
