DECEMBER 5, 2007

In a letter to Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle asks that a defendant in the 1944 Fort Lawton court-martial be “more reasonably compensate(d)” in light of the Army’s historic reversal of the court-martial verdicts.

“We are extremely gratified by the decision of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to overturn the convictions of the African American soldiers wrongly convicted in the 1944 killing of Guglielmo Olivotto at Seattle’s Fort Lawton,” McDermott wrote. “The Army’s decision was clear and unequivocal and removed a stain on the service’s honor.”

But—as first reported in The New York Times—defendant Samuel Snow “was issued a check for $725 for one years’ lost pay while he was jailed. The figure was not adjusted for inflation and the check did not reflect any interest for the 63 years the Army withheld Mr. Snow’s pay.

“As I am sure you will agree,” McDermott wrote, “a check for $725 is not fair to Mr. Snow.”

Maj. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesman, told the Associated Press that “There is no provision in law or regulations that provides for interest, damages, pain or suffering or attorney fees, [and] no adjustment for inflation. These have been on the books for years.”

“Somebody didn’t think this through,” McDermott told the AP. In his letter to the Army Secretary, McDermott said: “If the Army does not have the discretion to increase the compensation offered and legislation is required, we stand ready to work with you to introduce and pass it.”