Robert Swann

AKA: Bob Swann

Released

Date of birth:26. 03. 1918

Date of death:13. 01. 2003

Age:84^{† Deceased}

Gender:Male

Era:1940s

State:Ohio

Time Imprisoned:

2 Years

Support

Pacifism Schumacher Center for a New Economics New Communities

Biography

Robert Swann was an American peace activist and community land trust pioneer. A conscientious objector during World War II, he refused to cooperate with the draft and was imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky. His autobiography dates that imprisonment from September 1942 to September 1944 and describes serving two years of a five-year sentence. In prison, he studied economics and nonviolent social change with other conscientious objectors. He later helped establish New Communities in Georgia and became founding president of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics.

Cases

FCI Ashland

Charges: Refusal to cooperate with the World War II draft as a conscientious objector; exact statutory count unverified.

Incarcerated: September 1942

Released: September 1944

Sentence: Swann's autobiography states a five-year sentence, with two years served at Ashland from September 1942 to September 1944. This firsthand account is used over an obituary reporting a two-and-a-half-year sentence. Exact arrest, sentencing, admission, and release days remain unverified.

Institution State: Kentucky

Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury

Charges: Knowingly violating a Coast Guard restricted-zone order at the Ethan Allen launching; 50 U.S.C. 192.

Sentenced: Jun 19, 1961

Sentence: One year, suspended after 90 days, followed by five years of probation. Swann helped launch a protest canoe from shore; he was not one of the men who boarded the submarine. His autobiography confirms imprisonment at Danbury for this action. The exact custody endpoints and actual total served have not been established.

Prosecutor: John P. Diuguid; Hadley W. Austin

Judge: Robert P. Anderson

Convicted: Yes; affirmed October 30, 1962.

Institution State: Connecticut

Charges: Arrest during the CNVA vigil outside the Central Intelligence Agency following the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Arrested: 1961

Sentence: Swann recalls spending several weeks in a Washington, D.C. jail following this vigil. Exact admission and release dates are not established.

Robert Swann

Biography

Cases

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