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JULY 1, 2005
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DEMAND NEW LOOK AT 1944 COURT-MARTIAL
Legislation prompted by ON AMERICAN SOIL, a new book about a long-overlooked judicial injustice
Twenty-five members of the United States House of Representatives, led by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Seattle), introduced HR 3174 on June 30, 2005, imploring the Secretary of the Army to re-examine the verdicts in the U.S. Army’s largest and longest court-martial of World War II. The legislation was inspired by revelations in a new book, ON AMERICAN SOIL, by journalist Jack Hamann (Algonquin Books, 2005). [update: There are now 38 co-sponsors. See below.]
During the latter stages of World War II, the United States Army kept Italian and German prisoners of war in communities across America. On August 14, 1944, an Italian POW named Guglielmo Olivotto was found lynched at Seattle’s Fort Lawton, following a night of violent disturbances between U.S. soldiers and Italian prisoners. The Army eventually charged 43 soldiers with rioting; three were also charged with the first-degree murder of Private Olivotto. All 43 were African American.
The Army prosecutor was Leon Jaworski, later to become one of the most famous lawyers in American history, including the special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal. The 43 defendants had to share just two Army defense lawyers, who were given just ten days to prepare their case. Even as Jaworski was assembling evidence, however, the Pentagon assigned a brilliant and colorful investigator, Brig. Gen. Elliot Cooke, to prepare a separate report. The Cooke report was never made public, and was not introduced at trial. Twenty-eight of the defendants were convicted; two found guilty of manslaughter. Sentences ranged from six months to twenty-five years at hard labor; twenty-seven received dishonorable discharges. The defendants were from states across America, particularly Texas, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, California and Louisiana.
Author Jack Hamann, a veteran journalist from Seattle, located the Cooke report in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The report, including hundreds of pages of sworn testimony, reveals an entirely different story of the events of August 14, 1944. General Cooke found the conduct of various commanders at Fort Lawton to be, in his words, “reprehensible,” and recommended the discipline and/or court-martial of numerous white officers and enlisted men. His report revealed a pattern of incompetence and negligence at the fort. Nonetheless, dozens of facts that would have seriously damaged prosecutor Jaworski’s case were never made available to the defense, and some of those whom Cooke insisted be court-martialed were even allowed to be witnesses against the defendants.
INITIAL CO-SPONSORS OF H.R. 3174:
1. Norm Dicks (WA-6)
2. Major Owens (NY-11)
3. Elijah Cummings (MD-7)
4. Adam Smith (WA-9)
5. Lacy Clay (MO-1)
6. Kendrick Meek (FL-17)
7. Jay Inslee (WA-1)
8. Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
9. Julia Carson (IN-7)
10. William Jefferson (LA-2)
11. Diane Watson (CA-33)
12. Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
13. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11)
14. Mel Watt (NC-12)
15. Charlie Rangel (NY-15)
16. Bobby Scott (VA-3)
17. Gene Taylor (MS-4)
18. Hilda Solis (CA-32)
19. Jesse Jackson (IL-2)
20. John Conyers (MI-14)
21. Brian Baird (WA-3)
22. Rick Larsen (WA-2)
23. Mike Honda (CA-15)
24. Raul Grijalva (AZ-7)
ADDITIONAL CO-SPONSORS OF H.R. 3174:
25. Dave Reichert (WA-8)
26. Robert Brady (PA-1)
27. Corrine Brown (FL-3)
28. John Lewis (GA-5)
29. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18)
30. Sanford Bishop (GA-2)
31. Donald Payne (NJ-10)
32. Danny Davis (IL-7)
33. James McGovern (MA-3)
34. Silvestre Reyes (TX-16)
35. Cynthia A. McKinney (GA-4)
36. Alcee L. Hastings (FL-23)
37. Al Green (TX-9)
38. Gregory W. Meeks (NY-6)