Donald Martin

Released
Date of birth:c. 1940
Age:86
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1960s
State:Connecticut
Support
Anti-War Committee for Non-Violent Action
No image available

Biography

Donald Martin was a 20-year-old Committee for Non-Violent Action pacifist who, with Bill Henry, swam to and boarded the nuclear submarine Ethan Allen on November 22, 1960 at its launching in Groton, Connecticut, in the Polaris Action protest against the nuclear-missile submarine program. He refused bail and was held at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut awaiting trial by February 1961, and subsequently received an indefinite youth-offender sentence that could have kept him imprisoned for as long as four years. His exact release date remains unresolved.

Case

Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury
Charges: Trespassing — boarding the Polaris submarine Ethan Allen in protest
Arrested: Nov 22, 1960
Sentenced: Jun 19, 1961
Sentence: An indefinite youth-offender sentence that could have held him for as long as four years. He refused bail and was held at Danbury awaiting trial by February 1961. His exact release date is unresolved, so no release is entered. Martin was sentenced as a youth offender on June 19, 1961. By September 1962, reporting placed him in the federal prison at Ashland, Kentucky, after more than a year in custody, and described refusal of parole. The Youth Corrections Act distinguished a four-year limit before conditional release from six years before unconditional discharge; neither limit proves the time Martin actually served. He was also seized during the January 28, 1961 World Citizen action. His final release date remains unverified.
Prosecutor: John P. Diuguid; Hadley W. Austin
Judge: Robert P. Anderson
Convicted: Arrested and jailed November 1960
Institution State: Connecticut

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