Jim Forest

AKA: James Forest / James E. Forest
Released
Full name:James Hendrickson Forest
Date of birth:02. 11. 1941
Date of death:13. 01. 2022
Age:80† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1980s
State:New York
Time Imprisoned:
1 Year 2 Months 0 Days
Support
Anti-War Anti-Imperialism Communism Milwaukee 14 Communist Party USA
Jim Forest

Biography

Conscientious objector discharged from US Navy 1961. FOR Vietnam Program Coordinator who, in 1968, joined the "Milwaukee 14" draft-board raid and burning, serving 13 months in federal prison. Editor of Fellowship magazine and Secretary General of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation 1977-1988, the years of the Pledge of Resistance, working from the Netherlands. Author of biographies of Daniel Berrigan, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton.

James E. Forest was one of the five St. Louis Smith Act defendants — tried with his wife Dorothy Forest and William Sentner — convicted in 1956 and then freed when the Court of Appeals reversed the convictions under the Yates decision and the government dropped the retrial in October 1958.

Cases

Charges: Wisconsin state burglary, arson, theft — September 24, 1968 Milwaukee 14 draft-board raid
Arrested: Sep 23, 1968
Sentenced: Jun 5, 1969
Incarcerated: Jun 5, 1969
Released: Aug 5, 1970
Sentence: 2 years Wisconsin state prison; paroled at 14 months Verdict as recorded: Yes — Wisconsin state jury verdict, May 1969
Convicted: Yes
Charges: Federal trespass; unlawful entry; congregating (misdemeanor arrests, Pledge of Resistance anti-Contra protests, 1984–1990)
Sentence: Multiple Pledge of Resistance arrests, mostly cite-and-release; specific dates not consistently documented in open sources.
Convicted: Multiple misdemeanor charges, mostly dismissed
Charges: Smith Act — indicted in St. Louis in 1953 as Missouri Communist Party chairman.
Sentence: Prosecuted under the Smith Act.
Convicted: Indicted under the Smith Act (1953).
Charges: Smith Act — conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the government
Sentence: Conviction reversed; prosecution dropped October 1958 Verdict as recorded: Convicted 1956; conviction reversed after Yates
Convicted: Yes

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