Edward “Ed” Lewinson
Biography
Edwin R. Lewinson crossed the line at Fort Benning, Georgia during an SOA Watch vigil to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas / WHINSEC. Sentenced to 90 days in federal custody for trespass on a military installation.
Each year on the November anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter at the University of Central America in San Salvador in 1989, peace activists gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, site of the U.S. Army School of the Americas / Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), to commemorate the dead and to call for the school's closure. Hundreds have crossed the line onto the base over four decades of vigils; many have served federal sentences ranging from 30 days to a year for trespass.
Sources
Workers World reported that Lewinson, who was blind from birth, spent most of his 2008 Elkton sentence in the Special Housing Unit because the prison lacked facilities for blind prisoners: 23 hours a day on weekdays and around the clock on weekends. After an outside campaign secured a brief transfer to general population, the authorities returned him to lockdown. The article attributed this treatment to the prison’s failure to accommodate his disability, rather than disruptive behavior.
The report records initial overnight detention after the November 18, 2007 Fort Benning protest, followed by release pending trial.
