Richard Miller
Biography
Richard Miller was engaged in work with the poor in Des Moines, Iowa, at the time of his solo Pantex action. He took precautions to prevent accidental derailment and personal injury, then labored for seven hours with railroad tools, removing a 39-foot section of rail from the spur line carrying nuclear-weapon components from the Pantex Plant in Amarillo to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe main line.
Pantex dates checked against contemporary reports
The Nuclear Resister 33–34 reports the July 16, 1985 action, arrest and jailing, with the continuation specifying apprehension around 9 a.m. by sheriff deputies and a railroad agent. This corrects the unsupported July 15 arrest/incarceration entries. Issue 36 reports sentencing on November 8, 1985. Art Laffin reports release in February 1989; the old January 31 endpoint was replaced with month precision. February 1 is only the storage placeholder, not an asserted release day. Sentence length is not used to infer a day of release. The relevant complete contemporary pages were rendered and visually checked; an independently identified photograph remains missing.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister 33–34, September 6, 1985, printed pages 1 and 6 (PDF pages 2 and 7); issue 36, December 9, 1985, printed page 1 (PDF page 2); Art Laffin participant chronology, Pantex Disarmament Action.
Sentencing judge identified
The original Pantex report identifies Federal Judge Mary Lou Robinson as imposing two concurrent four-year terms on Friday, November 8, 1985. The existing July 16 arrest and November 8 sentencing dates remain unchanged; transit to prison at press time is not a newly inferred admission or release.
The Nuclear Resister No.36, December 9, 1985, original PDF pages 2.
Additional original custody evidence
The original front-page report dates Richard Miller’s conviction to October 22, 1985, on destruction of national defense material and wrecking trains, before Judge Mary Lou Robinson. It identifies the underlying rail-track action as July 16. The report’s expectation of sentencing before November 11 was still a forecast; the independently verified November 8 sentence and later February 1989 release remain unchanged. The jail letter dated October 3 preserves Miller’s own explanation of nonviolent resistance, not a new custody admission.
The Nuclear Resister No.35, October 24, 1985: PDF page 2; PDF page 5.
The Fall 1990 Write Through the Walls directory individually lists this prisoner under historical identifier 15249-077. This dated source-specific identifier fills the previously blank number field; the listing supplies no new admission, release or completed custody duration. The contact location is historical and does not establish current imprisonment.
