Vista : Draft Resister Sasway Expects Swift Sentence

Convicted draft registration resister Ben Sasway will enter federal District Court in San Diego Monday for what is likely to be the beginning of a 30-month prison term.

After more than two years of unsuccessful appeals, Sasway will again face Judge Gordon Thompson Jr., who presided over his original trial in 1982. The 24-year-old college student from Vista gained national attention as the first man prosecuted for failing to register for the draft since the Vietnam War era.

Sasway said he doesn’t know whether he will have to begin his sentence Monday, but is preparing to do so because of Thompson’s reputation for imposing sentences swiftly. The judge ordered Sasway to jail immediately after his conviction Aug. 26, 1982.

“Based on the way Judge Thompson has run the proceedings in the past, I find it hard to believe that he’s going to give me any leeway,” Sasway said.

Sasway remained in the San Diego County Jail until his sentencing Oct. 4, 1982, when he was freed on appeal. While his case was winding its way through the appellate courts, Sasway returned to his studies at Humboldt State University in Arcata, where he is a senior majoring in political science. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear any further argument in his case April 1, Sasway has been at his parents’ Vista home.

At 7:55 a.m. Monday, one hour before his court appearance, Sasway will be the featured speaker at a press conference held by the Draft Resisters Defense Fund outside the new federal Military Entrance Processing Station on Fifth Avenue.

“I’m going to be talking a little bit about how I feel facing jail and whether it was worth it,” Sasway said. “But there’s going to be a couple of other people talking, and basically what I think that will symbolically show is that I’m not alone, (that) there are other people involved in resistance.”