Samuel Loring Morison

Released
Date of birth:30. 10. 1944
Date of death:14. 01. 2018
Age:73† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1980s
Inmate Number:#12824-083
State:Maryland
Time Imprisoned:
8 Months
Support
Press Freedom Government Transparency
Samuel Loring Morison

Biography

Samuel Loring Morison was a Navy intelligence analyst and naval historian who supplied Jane’s Defence Weekly with three classified KH-11 satellite photographs of a Soviet shipyard in 1984. A federal jury convicted him in 1985 of espionage and theft of government property, making him the first U.S. official convicted under the Espionage Act for giving classified information to the press. Morison remained free while appealing, entered prison in 1988, and served eight months of a two-year sentence. President Bill Clinton pardoned him in 2001.

Official federal custody endpoint verified

The authorized BOP full-name lookup identifies12824-083 and records January23,1989 as no longer in federal custody. Earlier arrest, sentence and month-only1988entry findings are preserved. This does not date the end of parole, and the existing identified portrait is retained.

Case

Charges: 18 U.S.C. § 793(d) and § 793(e) Espionage Act (two counts) and 18 U.S.C. § 641 theft of government property (two counts) — first prosecution of a U.S. official under the Espionage Act.
Arrested: Oct 1, 1984
Sentenced: Dec 4, 1985
Incarcerated: June 1988
Released: Jan 23, 1989
Sentence: Two years imposedDecember4,1985; remained free pending appeal. Earlier source review establishes sentence service beganJune1988, month precision only: June1 is a storage placeholder, not exact admission. The authorized full-name BOP lookup uniquely identifies SamuelLoringMorison12824-083 and states Not in BOP Custody as ofJanuary23,1989. This is the federal custody endpoint, not proof that all supervision ended. Eight months is retained as the previously documented rounded service duration; the245day counter is removed because month-only entry cannot support it. The2001pardon is not prison release; no later namesake case or exact June admission inferred.
Prosecutor: U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Maryland
Judge: Hon. Joseph H. Young
Convicted: Yes

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