Draft Resister Given 6-Month Sentence at His Grandmother’s

David Alan Wayte, a 24-year-old former Yale philosophy student from Whittier, was sentenced today to six months of house arrest at his grandmother’s home after he pleaded guilty to failing to register for the military draft. U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr., in one of the most unusual sentencings in recent memory, said it was one of the “most difficult in my 25 years as a judge.”

Wayte pleaded guilty after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that the government could selectively prosecute those who publicize their intention not to register. Wayte and his wife, Jacqui Holt, live in a three-bedroom home in Whittier with his 76-year-old grandmother, Helen Wayte, who is disabled.

Hatter imposed the sentence on Wayte to prevent him from doing community service, which his lawyer requested. He has done similar work since he was in junior high school.