Biography
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy crossed the line at Fort Benning, Georgia during an SOA Watch vigil. Sentenced to 3 months. Catholic Worker (Worcester MA).
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.
A Winter–Spring 2026 Pax Christi Massachusetts review of Against All Odds describes Schaeffer-Duffy’s 1981–1989 campaign at the GTE plant in Westborough, Massachusetts, several brief periods of imprisonment, and a trial at which five defendants including him used a necessity defense and were acquitted. The review supplies neither individual custody endpoints nor a new numerical total. It adds context to his already recorded GTE imprisonment without duplicating that campaign as another measured stay. Source: https://paxchristima.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/PaxChristiMA-Newsletter_WinterSpring2026.pdf#page=7
Separate documented two-week Norwich blockade imprisonment
The General Dynamics/Norwich update individually names Theresa Allen, Peter Holladay, Cal Robertson, Dan Lawrence, Claire and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, Daniel Sirhan, Jeffrey Spalter and George Thompson as having served two weeks in jail for a nonviolent blockade before being brought to court January 25, 1985, when charges were dismissed. Its Recently Released list also names the same people. This establishes fourteen documented days and actual release in 1985 for Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, but dismissal is not silently treated as a precise physical-release day. First admission and exact discharge remain unknown; no January 11 admission is back-calculated. The source spells Clare as Claire; the distinctive compound surname and Scott pairing bridge the existing person, not a new duplicate. Earlier separately stored Scott Duffy identity questions are not resolved or merged from this report.
The Nuclear Resister No.29, February 27, 1985, original PDF pages 4,8.
Additional individually documented custody
The Groton update individually names Scott Schaeffer-Duffy among six convicted February 4, 1986 of creating a public disturbance during the November 1985 USS Pittsburgh launch. All six refused a $50 fine and actually spent five days in jail. The precise first admission and release days are not printed. This is distinct from the 1985 Norwich fourteen-day case and the February 14, 1986 GTE protest, whose March 5 conviction produced no new jail sentence; the prosecutor’s requested ninety days was not imposed.
The Nuclear Resister No.38, March 10, 1986, original PDF pages 3,5.
Earlier 1984–1985 custody chronology
The earlier January 23 issue places this same nine-person Norwich blockade on January 11, 1985, the day before the January 12 USS Alaska launch protest. It individually lists all nine as then held in jail pending trial. This identifies the arrest/action date for the already recorded fourteen-day Norwich case; it does not create another January episode or turn the later January 25 dismissal into an independently printed physical-release day. No exact first booking timestamp is inferred merely from the action date.
The Nuclear Resister No. 28, January 23, 1985, PDF pages [4].
Additional original custody evidence
The GTE Strategic Systems update states Scott Schaeffer-Duffy and Dan Ethier were physically released September 13, 1985 and each had served thirty-nine days after the Nagasaki commemorative protest. The Bishop of Worcester paid the remaining fines. October 24 had been a projected release, not the actual endpoint. The report’s thirty-nine served days are retained as reported; no exact admission is back-calculated, and the Nagasaki commemoration is not assumed to be the booking day. This is distinct from Scott’s January 1985 Norwich and February 1986 Groton stays.
The Nuclear Resister No.35, October 24, 1985: PDF page 7.
The GTE report individually names Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, Claire Schaeffer-Duffy, Dan Lawrence and Ernestine leBeau as arrested August 6, 1984, sentenced November 19 and having served fifteen days. The December 3 publication date and fifteen-day term create a reporting/timing ambiguity; the explicit served statement is retained, without calculating a day-specific admission or release.
The GTE account individually identifies this defendant in the April 5, 1985 arrest. All eight refused a promise to remain off GTE property and were held on $1,000 bond until April 11 conviction and time-served sentencing, with seven credited days. This is actual multi-day imprisonment distinct from the August 1985 GTE action. Seven credited days are not equated with six elapsed calendar days; physical release on April 11 is not explicitly reported and remains blank. The source’s Claire/Daniel Lawrence spellings are bridged to the existing distinctive GTE community identities; Daniel Either remains separately held for spelling verification.
The original individually names this defendant among nine arrested August 9, 1985 at GTE and tried that afternoon. It expressly reports refusal of the fines, conversion to jail days, and four still in jail, identifying these four by current jail addresses. This establishes actual August 9 intake. Independently corroborated later physical releases remain unchanged; the source’s advertised October/September release dates alone are not used. Any previously documented thirty-nine-day credit is retained as a reported counting convention rather than replaced with a conflicting elapsed-day calculation.
