David Reed Gets 3-Year Sentence, Friends Demonstrate in Courtroom

David A. Reed '68 was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for failure to report for armed services induction. And the act of his sentencing set off an upoar in in Boston's Federal District Court.

Reed told Judge Andrew A. Caffrey that the judge had no moral right to imprison him for refusing to cooperate with the draft laws. Reed then said that he would not leave the courtroom and started to stage a sitdown.

Deputy U.S. Marshals seized Reed and dragged him bodily across the courtroom and into a corridor leading to the U.S. Marshal's office. Later, 20 sympathizers filed out of the courtroom singing "We Shall Overcome," after marshals moved two of Reed's friends from the sitting positions the had taken in front of the courtroom rail.

Week-Long Fast

Some of them, members of the New England Committee for Non-Violent Action, then began what they said would be a week-long fast and vigil in Reed's honor outside the courthouse in Post Office Square.

Reed withdrew from Harvard last winter and moved to Voluntown, Conn., headquarters of the New England CNVA. His failure to report for a physical exam and then for induction last spring led to his arrest and jury trial.