Biography
Juan Pedro Farinas was a Cuban-born member of the Trotskyist Workers League who became a Vietnam-era anti-war cause célèbre. Although opposed to the war, he reported to his New York Army induction center when drafted; outside the building he joined an anti-war demonstration and handed leaflets to other draftees, discussing the war with them. For this he was prosecuted under the Selective Service Act and convicted in December 1970 of interfering with the Selective Service System, and sentenced to two years in federal prison. A broad coalition rallied to his defense through the Juan Farinas Defense Committee; the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction in 1971 (United States v. Farinas, 448 F.2d 1334), and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal on March 1, 1972.
