Army Apologizes For WWII Trial

[babylonsister]

There sure isn't a lot of info in this...

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-a2digbrf0727.art0jul27,0,1390310.story

Army Apologizes For WWII Trial

July 27, 2008

SEATTLE — - It was a crime so improbable that many had trouble believing it could have happened at all: Three black soldiers stood accused of lynching an Italian prisoner of war at Fort Lawton in Seattle in the middle of World War II.

After the three men, along with 40 other African American enlistees charged with rioting, were court-martialed, 28 men were convicted on rioting charges and two of them also were found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the hanging.

The men were sentenced to hard labor and forfeiture of military pay and benefits, and given dishonorable discharges.

On Saturday, a senior Army official offered an official apology and handed out certificates setting aside the convictions and converting the discharges to honorable status, in recognition that prosecutors had committed "egregious error" that resulted in a trial that was "fundamentally unfair."

All but two of the men are dead, and neither was present.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Well at least their families get some modicum of satisfaction.

[babylonsister]

2. More in-depth article here:

Lesson of Fort Lawton mustn't be lost

By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
P-I COLUMNIST

The apology was a long time coming.

It arrives just in time.

Sam Snow, now in his 80s and in the twilight of life, lived long enough to see something special today -- Saturday, July 26, 2008.

The U.S. government, at a ceremony in Seattle, will tell him one word he has been waiting a lifetime to hear: sorry.

Sorry for railroading him and 42 other black soldiers who wrongly were court-martialed for rioting and lynching an Italian POW at Seattle's Fort Lawton in 1944.

Sorry for smearing their names.

Sorry for dealing soul-shattering blows.

Amazingly, this morning's ceremony comes exactly on the 60th anniversary of President Truman's issuing Executive Order 9981 -- the order that ended segregation in the military.

One of the things that influenced Truman?

The debacle at Fort Lawton in the Magnolia neighborhood.

That sordid chapter in American history offers lingering lessons for our country, beginning with how injustice, when confronted by goodness, persistence and faith, falls.

more...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/372304_robert26.html