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Fort Lawton

AIR DATE: Wednesday, July 23rd 2008

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How should society repay the families of wrongfully convicted soldiers?

Guglielmo Olivotto was a shy Italian soldier who didn't stray far from the base in Seattle where he, and many of his comrades, were kept as prisoners of war during World War II. But on an August night in 1944, a riot broke out between African-American and Italian soldiers and he was found dead, the victim of a lynching. People immediately assumed the black U.S. soldiers were to blame.

The Army convicted 28 black soldiers and sentenced them to a combined total of 200 years in prison. It wasn't until journalist Jack Hamann investigated the case that the truth was uncovered: the soldiers were innocent, and a white Army policeman was most likely guilty of killing Olivotto.

In October, 2007 the US Army admitted the trial was "fundamentally unfair." Now society is struggling with how to repay these innocent men -- only two of whom are known to be alive -- and their families. At Fort Lawton this week the surviving soldiers will receive honorable discharge from the military as part of a three-day celebration of their lives (and the life of Guglielmo Olivotto). The Senate plans to vote soon on what kind of settlement to award them and their descendants.

What do you think is society's responsibility when people are wrongfully convicted? What should the US Government do for these Fort Lawton soldiers and their families? Is there concern that such a thing could happen today? Or is today's military justice system entirely different?

Tagged as: military · race · veteran

In 1971, during the Vietnam War I was a civilian defense lawyer for 13 black GI's on trial for mutiny at Long Binh, the US Command Headquarters outside of Saigon. This case was like many others during that war, where GI resistance was rampant, among both black and white GIs who challenged the rationale behind the war by refusing to go out on senseless and deadly patrols. That history of resistance is largely forgotten, but is repeating itself in the Iraq War, a story that needs much more reporting.

barbara dudley — Wed July 23rd 11:15a.m.

Thanks for that, you're one of my heroes for that kind of service.

Tom D Ford — Wed July 23rd 12:56p.m.

A web page featuring Guglielmo Olivotto's headstone.

David Miller — Wed July 23rd 11:25a.m.

I am a veteran of the Viet Nam era Navy (1970-74)and participated in a court martial as a witness. The Navy of the Viet Nam era was known to be racist and indeed there were a number of incidents that caused Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo Zumwalt to institute "rap sessions" where sailors would discuss the problems and hopefully change their behavior and understanding of minorities.

The incident which led to the court martial I was involved with stemmed from a racial incident aboard the USS Horne (DLG-30)at anchor off Beppu, Japan, in the spring of 1974. The crew off watch, gathered on the ship's stern at the end of the day. One of my men, black, was insulted with the "N" word, went to his bunk and got his oriental fighting sticks (the ones connected by rope or chain) and proceeded to swing it at his tormentors. He was taken into custody by the Master at Arms and court martialed.

He was clearly guilty of the assault, but the event was motivated by racism, an endemic problem in the Navy at the time. His counsel, a Navy JAG lawyer, was a young Ensign just out of Law School who, I thought at the time, got eaten alive by the Marine lawyer prosecuting. Military law tends to assume guilt until innocence is proved in my experience, so the sailor was bound to be found guilty, but his lawyer was pretty ineffectual I thought. I think he got 3 or maybe 6 months in the brig.

It was a tough situation. He was insulted by other sailors on a racial basis, but the violence of his response was as unwise as it was clear. As an isolated incident of the times it was pretty cut and dried. But seen in the larger context of the Navy's racial problems it is tragic. The white sailors who issued the first insults were punished at Captain's Mast (a lower level of military justic and at the discretion of the ship's captain)with some loss of pay and restriction to the ship.

As an example of the routine racism aboard ship then, there was an earlier incident in which this same black sailor and a white sailor in my watch section were both late for muster one morning. The black sailor had been written up as UA (Unauthorized Absence)by the leading Chief Petty Officer, and the white sailor was not. This being unfair, I wrote up the white sailor which brought the Chief down on my head with threats to write me up. I said "fine with me. I don't mind talking with the Captain" which backed the Chief down and both write-ups were withdrawn.

Thanks for this topic.

Jim Longstreth — Wed July 23rd 11:37a.m.

All history is "His story"

Now I have one more reason for my 'white guilt' - thanks.

Chad Balcom — Wed July 23rd 12:27p.m.

A point of detail:
When I first read this story in the Seattle Weekly, 20-odd years ago -- by Jack Hamann ? -- it made the point, as I recall, that the Italians were no longer officially POWs because Italy had surrendered in late 1943. By the time of the 1944 "incident", they had a different status -- perhaps something like "alien internees" (like merchant sailors who had been stranded by the war?) -- comment?

mbrunengo — Wed July 23rd 12:35p.m.

The current on-air discussion has been powerful, and a reminder that acknowledgement of injustice in all forms is more important than we can imagine . . . because we cannot walk in the shoes of everyone offended and/or mistreated. As a past facilitator of interracial dialogues, I cannot emphacize enough the value of listening to a person's own account of having lived in a racist society . . . and the value of having one's personal story recognized.
Financial payment for injustices is important in cases like this one, but intellectual recognition of these travesties, followed up by actions to avoid them in the future, is where it's at . . . what we hope for in the long run.

Eileen

mischasgal — Wed July 23rd 12:48p.m.

When you enter the military you essentially enter a dictatorship, you sign away your rights as an American, a different law than the Constitution applies to you, the UCMJ, Universal Code of Military (in)Justice, and Officers can and will lie to you, confident that the higher ups will back them against you.


The military has a long long history of these kinds of cases which only inadvertently come to light by some civilians interest and digging though the history.

Tom D Ford — Wed July 23rd 12:52p.m.

if Attorney Leon Jaworski knew the true story about the riot, why do you suppose that he participated in a dishonest presentation of the facts that led to conviction of these innocent men? What do you think was his motive?

BetsyB — Wed July 23rd 12:54p.m.

Time is the most important possession a human being can own, and then but briefly. Once time has been taken from a person it can NEVER be corrected. "What if...." will always linger. Missed opportunities can never be retraced. The only road availabe is what can be done from this point forward to help the unjustly convicted person and/or their family move forward. This may include more than money such as psychological help, acknowledgement and ownship of the government and people who contributed to the conviction and whether or not they could have done a better job or they did the best the could at the time.

I served 20 months in Viet Nam in the U.S. Marine Corps. Racism was both obvious and not so obvious from booth camp to completion of enlistment. I was lucky. As a Black Man I refused to accept a job as a cook and was prepared to spend my entire 4 year enlistment in the brig. I was fortunate to have a white senior officer and enlisted supervisor who gave me other options despite my refusal. A white Marine on patrol refused to participate in the rape of a vietnames girl in a village but was ordered by his senior enlisted supervisor to participate in the removal of the girl's clothing. This Marine reported the incident. He was charged with the rape alone with the others who actually participated in the rape. The Court ruled he was not obligated to follow or comply with an illegal order. Despite the fact that we 18 and 19 years olds spend three months in booth camp being brain washed that we do not question orders we obey them. What a catch 22 such young men are placed. I pray this Marine's conviction was over turned.

MeanMachine2 — Wed July 23rd 1:33p.m.

"Racism was both obvious and not so obvious from booth camp to completion of enlistment. I was lucky. As a Black Man I refused to accept a job as a cook and was prepared to spend my entire 4 year enlistment in the brig."

I noticed that in the Army too, Philippinos(sp?) and black people were the cooks, and usually with a white supervisor. I admire your courage in refusing, doing that in the Marines at that time was no small thing and took huge courage.

Tom D Ford — Thu July 24th 11:50a.m.

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