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Courts-martial of WWII black GIs ruled flawed

SEATTLE — Black soldiers court-martialed 63 years ago in the rioting death of an Italian prisoner of war at Fort Lawton were unfairly denied access to their attorneys and investigative records and should have their convictions overturned, the Army said.

The ruling Friday by the Army’s Board of Corrections of Military Records applies to four soldiers who petitioned military investigators with the help of two congressmen, but could eventually cover two-dozen more soldiers found guilty of rioting over alleged resentment of Italian prisoners’ living conditions on the post.

Samuel Snow, 83, one of the petitioners who served a year in prison, said he was “elated” by the decision.

“It just knocked me off of my feet,” Snow said from his home in Leesburg, Fla.

“No, I don’t have no resentment over it,” he said. “I’ve just kept myself clean up to this present moment.”

The other petitioners are deceased.

The decision could grant the soldiers honorable discharges, back pay and benefits.

“I’m absolutely overwhelmed with joy. You don’t often get a chance to pursue justice on behalf of something that happened (63) years ago,” said Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat who requested the review along with Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter.

In 1944, POW Guglielmo Olivotto was found hanging on wires in an obstacle course following a night of rioting on the post in what is now Seattle’s Discovery Park.

Forty-three black soldiers were tried in one of the largest courts-martial of World War II. Of those, 28 were found guilty of rioting and sentenced to as many as 25 years in prison.

Only two of the 28 soldiers are believed to be still alive, said Jack Hamann, who wrote a book on the case, “On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II.”

The lawyer in charge of the case for the board, John Tait, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday night.