OCTOBER 26, 2007

Declaring that the prosecution of 43 U.S. soldiers—all of them African American—was “fundamentally unfair,” the United States Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) in Arlington, VA today overturned convictions from the largest and longest Army court-martial of World War II.

In an order issued by the Secretary of the Army, transmitted by ABCMR director Catherine C. Mitrano, the Army set aside the December 18, 1944 convictions of four soldiers; eventually, 28 convicted soldiers will be affected (13 of the 43 who stood trial were acquitted in 1944; charges against two others were dropped during trial.) All 28 will be issued honorable discharges. In addition, the surviving defendants—or the estates of those who have since died—are entitled to “all rights, privileges and property lost as a result of the convictions,” including “all due pay and allowances” dating to March 6, 1946 (six months after the conclusion of World War II.)

The decision is a stunning rebuke to Leon Jaworski, the JAG lawyer who prosecuted the Fort Lawton case. Jaworski—one of the most famous lawyers of the twentieth century—gained his greatest notoriety as special prosecutor in 1974’s Watergate affair, winning the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Nixon. In the Fort Lawton case, however, the ABCMR finds that Jaworski improperly withheld crucial exculpatory evidence from the defendants, labeling his actions an “egregious error.” Jaworski died in Wimberley, Texas in 1982.

Today’s order is in response to appeals filed by one surviving defendant, Samuel Snow of Leesburg, Florida, and by the families of three other deceased defendants, Booker Townsell (1915-1984) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Luther Larkin (1921-1948) of Helena, Arkansas, and William Jones (1924-1992) of Decatur, Illinois. The order, however, declares that the Army failed to provide “due process by the standards in place at the time of their trial” for all 43 defendants. The relief offered to the four applicants will be available to the families of all those convicted.

One other defendant is currently alive, Roy Montgomery of Flossmoor, Illinois. Families of other defendants are currently living throughout the United States, including California, Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Florida, and elsewhere. The families of many of the defendants, however, have yet to be located.

In 1944, Seattle’s Fort Lawton was a major installation, responsible for shipping men and materials to battlegrounds in the Pacific theater. Most African-American soldiers at Fort Lawton were assigned to port companies; all such companies were segregated by race. At Fort Lawton, a company of Italian prisoners of war—designated as an Italian Service Unit (ISU)—were quartered next door to three all-black port companies.

On the night of August 14, 1944, a violent riot erupted, pitting black soldiers from three port companies against members of the ISU. Nearly three dozen men were injured. The next morning, a white military policeman named Clyde Lomax discovered the lynched body of Italian private Guglielmo Olivotto. After months of investigation amid international media and public scrutiny, 43 soldiers were charged with rioting and three—Luther Larkin, Arthur Hurks and William Jones—were charged with first-degree murder.

All 43 defendants were represented by just two Army lawyers: William Beeks and Howard Noyd (Mr. Noyd is still alive.) The attorneys were given just ten days to prepare a defense for men facing possible life imprisonment (the maximum sentence for rioting) or execution (the penalty for murder.) Today’s ABCMR ruling describes that burden as a denial of a fair trial. “It is a stretch to believe each client received the individualized attention from counsel that the seriousness of the charges warranted.”

In 2005, Seattle journalist Jack Hamann wrote “On American Soil,” (Algonquin Books, 2005; University of Washington Press, 2007), an account of the Fort Lawton riot and trial. Research in the National Archives led Hamann and his wife, Leslie Hamann, to discover a lengthy report prepared in advance of the 1944 trial by General Elliot Cooke, of the Army’s Inspector General’s office. The Cooke Report detailed widespread errors in the investigation of the riot and lynching, and harshly castigated many of the Army’s own officials, including the fort’s commander, Colonel Harry Branson. “On American Soil” also presented compelling evidence that Private Guglielmo Olivotto was likely lynched by a white soldier, not by any of the black defendants.

During the 1944 trial, Leon Jaworski used information from the Cooke Report, but steadfastly refused to make it available to the defense. Today, the ABCMR concluded that Jaworski’s refusal “rendered the trial fundamentally unfair and improper.”

In 2005, after reading “On American Soil,” Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced HR 3174, demanding that the Secretary of the Army reevaluate the Fort Lawton convictions in light of the evidence reported by the Hamanns. The bill was referred to the House Armed Services Committee, where then-chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) joined with Rep. McDermott in referring the demand for review to the ABCMR. Today’s action is the result of more than 15 months of evaluation by the review board.

“The Army Review Board got it right,” says Jack Hamann. “Overturning World War II’s largest and longest Army court-martial is an extraordinary, but utterly appropriate thing to do. I can only hope that news of this event will aid in discovering the whereabouts of more than two dozen families who are affected by this historic decision, but do not yet realize that their family members were involved.”

Contact: Mike DeCesare, office of Rep. Jim McDermott, (206) 553-7170
Rachael Mann, University of Washington Press, (206) 221-4995