Draft Foe Freed After Serving 6 Months

Benjamin Sasway, the first man sentenced to prison since the Vietnam era for refusing to register for the draft, was released Friday after serving six months of a 2 1/2-year sentence.

Sasway, 24, said he has no regrets about his opposition to a draft but was happy to be out of prison. His lawyer said Sasway, of Vista in northern San Diego County, would resume his college studies.

“I guess the most important thing coming out of this moment is that I’ve done what I had to do and I feel good about it,” Sasway said after his release on parole from the federal prison camp at Lompoc.

“I have responded to what I consider a great moral necessity,” he said after being met at the prison by his parents, girlfriend and a small group of supporters.

“It’s the best news I’ve had since I heard he was born,” said his father, Joseph Sasway. “I support his feelings and opinion and I basically feel the same way.

“I think there are better ways of solving the world’s problems than war, than killing one another. This is his personal statement about peace.”

Sasway, citing moral grounds for his refusal to register even though nobody was being drafted, wrote to President Jimmy Carter and stated his views. He was found guilty in August, 1982, in federal court in San Diego of failing to register with the Selective Service.

In appealing the conviction, Sasway claimed that he was the victim of selective prosecution by a government that indicted only men who publicly stated their opposition to draft registration. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider his case.

Sasway had faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. His attorney, Charles Bumer, said Sasway’s parole had no special conditions.

“The normal conditions would be that he be law-abiding and that he follow a course of full-time employment or education, or a combination of both,” Bumer said.

Sasway was a senior majoring in philosophy and political science at Humboldt State University in Northern California when he was sent to prison.