KING COUNTY BAR BULLETIN
June 1, 2005

American Justice Soiled?
By Hon. William L. Downing

Courts are seldom at their best during times of war. Here in the northwest, our usual poignant reminder of this fact is the court-approved internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Now, Seattle journalist and writer Jack Hamann has given us another timely and well-documented example.

At the foot of Seattle’s spectacular Magnolia Bluffs, on the grounds of the U.S. Army’s Fort Lawton, an Italian private was found hanged by the neck in August of 1944. Although it remains something less than certain, the lynching was apparently the culmination of the previous evening’s battle royal between African American troops stationed at the Fort and Italian prisoners of war being housed there. The ensuing prosecution of 43 black U.S. soldiers – on charges of rioting and murder – is said to have been the largest Army court-martial of World War II.

In On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II, Jack Hamann skillfully tells this previously obscure tale in a way that should thrill students of both military and Seattle history. The author has also gently and generously filled the book with ample material for musings on the subjects of sociology, psychology and law.

The U.S. Army of 1944 was still largely a segregated institution. The companies of black soldiers passing through Fort Lawton stayed in barracks far removed from those of the white soldiers. Their closest neighbors were the prisoners of war who occupied the “Italian Area” which was symbolically just a little further down the hill from the “Colored Area”.

After being captured in North Africa and transported to these shores, the Italian POW’s were advised to maintain “a serene disposition” and, for the most part, they did. Subject to the protections of the recently inked Geneva Convention agreements, they were given comfortable accommodations and paid jobs and were even allowed to take furloughs with Seattle families. Many American soldiers, readying themselves for hard fighting in the jungles of the Pacific theater, were resentful that these enemy combatants seemed to be enjoying la dolce vita in captivity.

On a hot summer evening in 1944, with this festering resentment fueled by alcohol consumption and a pumped-up combat readiness, a minor incident led to the black soldiers mounting a full scale attack on the Italian barracks while white MP’s and officers looked the other way.

Whether it was simple negligence or something worse, the predominantly white officers who might have prevented or minimized the carnage and who might have conducted an effective investigation in its immediate aftermath, failed miserably. The initial response of the MP’s was obscenely slow, the crime scene was not preserved, the murder weapon was somehow lost and many of the suspects were almost instantly shipped out. This left it to Lt. Col. Leon Jaworski (later Watergate special prosecutor and A.B.A. president) to put together a case as the Judge Advocate assigned to bring charges and prosecute them.

Hamann does not paint an entirely flattering picture of Jaworski at this point in what would become an illustrious legal career. Possessed of a brilliant mind and a full set of lawyerly skills, Jaworski’s performance seems to have been marred by his personal ambition. The prize upon which his eyes were set was a plum post-war assignment in Europe prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

The case Jaworski brought in the Fort Lawton affair was shockingly overcharged and built upon some hastily made immunity deals that seemed to serve the interests of expediency more than proportionality. Despite a lack of any evidence of direct action on their parts, three defendants faced the death penalty for first degree premeditated murder.

Of course, Jaworski’s approach was not at all at odds with the goals of the Army and of the nation at war: act swiftly and firmly and put this sorry episode in the past. Quick convictions and harsh sentences would placate the international community, pull the Army through a potential scandal and put a feather in the cap of Col. Jaworski. If this course of action placed an unjust burden on the black soldiers who were made scapegoats, well, that could be ameliorated soon enough through executive clemency once people’s attentions had turned elsewhere. As it happened, that is just what occurred.

On the defense side, Maj. William T. Beeks (later to become a respected federal judge in Seattle) fares much better in this account. He, along with co-counsel Capt. Howard Noyd, represented all 43 of the defendants and was allowed all of ten days to prepare for trial. Besides the obvious conflicts of interest and inadequate preparation time, the defense was handicapped by the unavailability in discovery of key investigative documents deemed classified. To cap it off, they were trying their case to a markedly unsympathetic tribunal. Nonetheless, the defense found some success winning one murder acquittal and two manslaughter verdicts. The latter, of course, are inexplicable except as blatant compromise.

Standing in contrast to the military proceedings he describes, author Hamann is scrupulously fair in presenting the evidence he has gathered. A veteran of 25 years in journalism since graduating from the University of Oregon School of Law, he is content to report rather than advocate. For instance, he certainly has his own suspect in the lynching but he prefers to simply lay out the facts and let the reader evaluate them.

The background on the telling of this story is a compelling story in its own right. While working at KING-TV in the 1980’s, Hamann had stumbled onto this historical footnote quite by chance. Fifteen years later, he and his wife Leslie would spend many months traveling across the country interviewing survivors and sifting through countless archived documents. From this arduous research, they (and Hamann is quick to credit his wife as his collaborator) have produced a volume with significant and lasting value.

Chief Justice Earl Warren once wrote “It would be ironic indeed if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of those liberties … which make the defense of the Nation worthwhile.” Among our national values is a belief in preserving official documents and making them available for public inspection. Among our national assets are investigative journalists who are able and willing to shine lights into dark places such as this sorry episode.

For those concerned about preserving all courts that sit on American soil as the protectors of our cherished liberties, Jack Hamann has given us a very timely reminder to maintain our vigilance lest we lose sight of all the potential enemies of justice.

William L. Downing has served as a King County Superior Court Judge since 1989. He is Chair of the YMCA Youth & Government High School Mock Trial Program and Chair of the Washington Bench-Bar-Press Liaison Committee.

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