Biography
Lin M. Romano was an advocate for the poor from Washington, D.C. and an Epiphany Plowshares participant. Military security took her into custody at Willow Grove Naval Air Station on January 6, 1987. After three mistrials, she was convicted of damaging government property, conspiracy and unlawful military-base entry, and sentenced on November 17, 1987. The Third Circuit reversed the conviction on June 16, 1988 because the trial court denied her choice of counsel after revoking her self-representation. The movement chronology reports nine months imprisoned, followed by a November 1988 trespass conviction and two years probation. A contemporary report confirms she began serving at Lexington on November 27, 1987; her exact release day remains unverified.
Epiphany Plowshares sentence and later disposition
The original Third Circuit opinion, United States v. Lin M. Romano, 849 F.2d 812, establishes January 6, 1987 custody by military security, identifies the property-damage, conspiracy and entry counts, and gives November 17, 1987 sentencing. It reversed the conviction on June 16, 1988 because the trial court denied counsel of choice after terminating self-representation; that appellate date is not assumed to be the release day. The Epiphany section of the movement chronology reports nine months in prison and a subsequent November 1988 trespass conviction with two years probation. This supports a year-only 1988 discharge and actual duration, not an exact release day calculated from the announced sentence. The legacy November 27 admission remains uncorroborated. Photographs merely credited to Romano do not identify her as their subject.
The Winter 1988 Insurgent explicitly reports that Lin Romano began serving her sentence at Lexington’s general prison, not its control unit, on November 27, 1987. It distinguishes that actual start from the two-years-plus-one-hundred-days imposed sentence. Existing separately sourced 1988 year-precision release and nine-month actual-service report are preserved.
