Biography
Frank Panopoulos has worked on peace and social justice issues since 1979. During the 1980s he lived in the Cor Jesu Community, a lay Catholic community engaged in works of mercy in Upper Manhattan. He served prison time for two Plowshares actions (AVCO 1983 and Trident II 1984) and later became a human rights attorney and a writer for CovertAction Magazine.
Photograph: Pax Christi USA, “Welcome new (and re-elected) national council members!”, October 1, 2025. The organization identifies Panopoulos beside this portrait and links his biography to imprisonment for the AVCO and Trident II Plowshares actions. Photographer not specified in the source.
Separate AVCO Plowshares detention
The July 14, 1983 contemporary UPI report names Panopoulos among the seven AVCO defendants arrested after security apprehension. Following arraignment and refusal to post bail, the men were sent to Billerica House of Correction that day. This is a separate Massachusetts case, not the October 1984 Rhode Island Trident II action. The initial arrest and detention are entered July 14 with day precision. The scheduled August 5 trial is not treated as a release or actual sentencing day.
Commonwealth v. Schuchardt expressly names Panopoulos in footnote 1 and confirms the July 14 action. On August 15, 1990, the court affirmed trespass but reversed the wanton property-injury convictions and set aside those verdicts; it did not order or establish a 1990 release. Media Burn's archive description of original trial footage reports one month for trespass and two and a half months for wanton injury. Those are imposed sentences, not proof of actual days served, concurrency, admission after sentencing, or discharge.
Sources: UPI, July 14, 1983, contemporary full indexed report (direct page returned 403); Commonwealth v. Schuchardt, 408 Mass.347 (1990), including footnote 1; Media Burn, original trial documentary archive description. No footage was downloaded or reused; existing portrait retained. Exact AVCO release and sentencing remain unresolved; Trident II admission/release chronology still under review.
Follow-up: exact initial AVCO release
The original Nuclear Resister issue19, August23,1983, page1 names Frank Panopoulos and reports that all seven AVCO defendants were released on personal recognizance at the July22 hearing. Full-page visual inspection supports adding July22,1983 as the initial bail release. The eight-day July14–22 interval is not a lifetime AVCO total, nor the discharge from later sentenced imprisonment. This supersedes the earlier source note's unresolved initial release; later admission and discharge remain unknown. Original contemporary initial-release report. His existing portrait, TridentII case and unrelated2026 case are unchanged.
Separate December 1983 AVCO detention
The original February 12, 1984 Nuclear Resister, physical page 6 / printed page 5, AVCO Plowshares Guilty, individually names all seven defendants. It reports their December 16, 1983 conviction, sentence, immediate jailing and release later that same day pending appeal. This short post-verdict interval is recorded separately from July 14–22, 1983; the intervening period is not counted as incarceration. Concurrent versus consecutive terms depended on prior records and is not individually assigned without evidence.
The report also distinguishes the December 20 return of John Pendleton and Jean Holladay. That later imprisonment is not assigned to the other five. The contemporaneous report confirms Pendleton's February 6 release but only forecasts Holladay's early-March release, which must not be entered as an exact actual discharge.
Two distinct Trident II stays
Complete relevant original pages of NR027 and NR035 were rendered and visually reviewed. The intervening gap is not prison time. The existing identified portrait and separately prepared AVCO episodes are retained. Actual final Trident discharge remains unresolved.
