Biography
Tim Lietzke was a member of Jeremiah House, a Catholic peace community in Richmond, Virginia, at the time of the Pershing Plowshares action. He has continued to write for Pax Christi USA on peace and disarmament.
Pershing Plowshares: custody episodes distinguished
The original May 1984 newsletter dates the action and initial detention to April 22, 1984 and reports continued detention while the eight refused bond. The August issue establishes sentencing on July 26, 1984. However, Jim Perkins subsequently described a period of freedom before the trial ended. The initial detention and later sentenced imprisonment are therefore recorded separately; the exact intervening release and later remand dates remain unresolved. The July 26 sentencing date is not silently treated as a new prison-admission date, and no arrest-to-final-release continuous total is inferred.
The sentence was three years for depredation and five years probation for conspiracy, with restitution. Christin Schmidt expressly corrected the earlier newsletter account of an extra suspended five-year term, and Perkins independently describes the same sentence.
Sources: Nuclear Resister 25, May 9, 1984, pages 1 and 3; issue 26, August 2, 1984, page 1; issue 27, December 3, 1984, page 10, Schmidt correction; Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Spring 1986, Perkins firsthand account pages 4-5.
The March 1986 issue gives a future expected release, not an actual discharge. No release date is created from that forecast. Source: Nuclear Resister 38, March 10, 1986, page 6.
Release year confirmed without guessing the day
The July newsletter still gives a prospective end for Lietzke, while the September 18, 1986 issue explicitly states that all eight Pershing defendants have now been released from jail. This establishes his release in 1986, no later than that report, but not an actual July 25 date from the prior roster forecast. Year precision is used; the stored January 1 is a placeholder. Exact discharge and the intermediate pretrial-release/remand dates remain research gaps.
Sources: Nuclear Resister 39-40, July 18, 1986, pages 3 and 14; issue 41, September 18, 1986, page 7, announcement.
Identified historical photograph
Tim Lietzke is fourth from the left in the original group photograph taken by police on the morning of the April 22, 1984 Pershing Plowshares action. The publisher-added label identifies him by name. Monteverde Friends Meeting published the photograph with his firsthand account, “Semillas of Joy,” March 20, 2020. The photograph is preserved unchanged; photographer identity and reuse license are unknown.
Source: Monteverde Friends Meeting newsletter archive, Tim Lietzke account and caption; original labeled photograph.
Exact federal custody endpoint independently confirmed
The ordinary official BOP locator now confirms TIMOTHY ALLEN LIETZKE, register 03830-018, not in BOP custody as of July 25, 1986. The number is individually printed in the original July 1986 newsletter roster. This supersedes the earlier year-only release field and its January 1 placeholder, without treating the newsletter forecast alone as proof. It does not establish the end of other custody or supervision. Exact later admission remains unknown, so no exact day counter is created. Official locator; record limitations; original roster, printed page 3.
The Spring/Summer 1986 Write Through the Walls directory individually lists Tim Lietzke under historical prisoner number 03830-018, with correspondence directed to FCI, Petersburg, Virginia. The original name, individual number and political-prisoner group context match this existing profile. This is dated historical correspondence information, not a present mailing instruction or an independently established admission, transfer, release or completed custody duration.
