Judge Who Sentenced Military Draft Fugitive Now Wants Him Pardoned

Nearly 40 years ago, a federal judge sentenced Black graduate student Preston King to 18 months in prison for draft evasion. King instead jumped bail and fled to Europe, and has lived there ever since for fear he will be arrested if he returns.

Now, the judge wants President Clinton to pardon King and let him come home.

"He has paid a big price," said Judge William A. Bootle, now 96 and retired from the bench. "To lock him up today would amount to overkill."

Judge Bootle also said, "I have come to the conclusion that it would be appropriate to invite him back home, and that would mean to wipe the slate clean and grant him a pardon."

King, who left the United States in 1961 because he felt he had been wronged by a racist system, is the chairman of political science at Lancaster University in England.

King, 63, said he was pleased to hear of Judge Bootle's support.

King told CBS' Bryant Gumbel on "The Early Show": "It demonstrates a tremendous courage because what the judge is doing is saying that he thinks that this move that was made against me should be annulled, rescinded, canceled. And I think it takes great moral courage to be able to make such a claim by one who was central to those events at that time."

King also noted, "It's gratifying to think that the judge, at so late an age, should have the courage to come out as he has done to say that the whole process was basically, at heart, a mistake."

He told AP: "After 38 years, I'm still unable to return home. I'm still subject to the threat of arrest and harassment by federal authorities. I am still unable to visit my relations, the graves of my mother and father and brothers."

In 1958, King refused to serve in the military because he felt the all-White draft board in Albany, GA, denied him a college deferment based on his race. He noted that the beard addressed him as "Mr. Preston King" before the members learned he was Black and "Preston" after that.

Judge Bootle told President Clinton in a letter: "Mr. King was deeply sensitive to what he recognized as this long-lasting, deeply rooted method of racial discrimination. So he replied that if the beard would go back to addressing him as `Mr. King,' he would report for military service, and that otherwise he would not."

The judge also noted that many draft dodgers who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War were later pardoned.

Over the years, King was unable to attend the funerals of his parents or brothers in the United States. But he would like to be there when the new federal courthouse in Albany, GA, named for his brother, civil rights attorney C.B. King, is dedicated. The courthouse is under construction; no date for the dedication has been set.

Politicians--including Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA)--have joined the NAACP in calling for a pardon. And supporters of King held vigils in Atlanta, Washington and Albany, GA, to pray for clemency.

King told "The Early Show" that he has no regrets for taking his stance and speaking out against racism in the U.S.

"The choice you're confronted with is to bend the knee and do something which you think reprehensible or to stand up and look the other chap in the face and say, `No, thus far, no further,'" he explained.

"So one makes that decision, and every consequence that follows from it is a part of the decision itself; no point in regretting it or looking back upon it in dismay," King said.