Andrew Lawrence

Released

Date of birth:c. 1959

Age:67

Gender:Male

Race:White

Era:1980s

State:Maryland

Support

Anti-Nuclear Plowshares Movement

Biography

Andrew Lawrence was a 28-year-old former Peace Corps volunteer and peace activist living at Jonah House in Baltimore, also described as associated with the Community for Creative Non-Violence. On Easter Sunday, April 3, 1988, he joined Philip Berrigan, Sister Margaret McKenna and Gregory Boertje in boarding the USS Iowa with a public tour at Norfolk Naval Station. Calling themselves the Nuclear Navy Plowshares, the four separated from the tour, used hammers and bolt cutters against two armored Tomahawk cruise-missile launcher boxes, poured blood on the equipment and displayed banners reading “Seek the Disarmed Christ” and “Tomahawks Into Plowshares,” stopping when naval security ordered them to. Lawrence was arrested and charged with federal criminal trespass. Although offered release on personal recognizance, he refused and remained jailed in solidarity with Boertje, whose bond had been set at $25,000 over an earlier Plowshares prosecution. Tried without a jury before U.S. Magistrate Tommy Miller, Lawrence admitted the action but argued it was justified by international law and the threat posed by nuclear weapons; he was convicted on May 19, 1988 and sentenced on July 21, 1988 to four months in prison, having by then already spent 109 days in custody. He was then transferred to a Philadelphia jail to face a separate charge connected with hanging a banner from the federal courthouse roof during one of the Epiphany Plowshares trials; his final release date has not been recovered.

Cases

Norfolk Naval Station (USS Iowa) — Nuclear Navy Plowshares

Charges: Federal criminal trespass.

Arrested: Apr 3, 1988

Incarcerated: Apr 3, 1988

Sentence: Four months’ imprisonment, imposed July 21, 1988. Offered release on personal recognizance the day after the action, he refused so long as codefendant Gregory Boertje was held on $25,000 bond, and stayed jailed from arrest through trial and sentencing — 109 days, three months and eighteen days, already served by the sentencing date. After sentencing he was transferred to Philadelphia custody for a separate charge, so his release date is unknown and the counter is left empty; the four-month term would otherwise have expired around August 3, 1988. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted May 19, 1988 at a bench trial (a later Plowshares chronology misplaces the proceedings in 1989; contemporary reporting establishes 1988) Charges as recorded: Federal criminal trespass — the Easter Sunday 1988 Nuclear Navy Plowshares action aboard the USS Iowa at Norfolk Naval Station, in which the four hammered and poured blood on two armored Tomahawk cruise-missile launcher boxes and displayed anti-nuclear banners.

Judge: U.S. Magistrate Tommy Miller

Convicted: Yes

Plead: Not guilty — admitted the action, arguing it was justified by international law and the threat posed by nuclear weapons

Institution State: Virginia

Charges: Philadelphia.

Sentence: Charges as recorded: Philadelphia — a separate charge arising from the hanging of a banner from the federal courthouse roof during one of the Epiphany Plowshares trials. He was transferred to a Philadelphia jail after his July 21, 1988 Norfolk sentencing. The precise offense, the disposition, any additional sentence and his ultimate release date have not been recovered, so this case carries no dates and adds nothing to the counter.

Andrew Lawrence

Biography

Cases

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