[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3174 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3174

   To direct the Secretary of the Army to carry out without delay a 
  thorough review of the cases of all 28 individuals convicted in the 
   court-martial arising from a disturbance at Fort Lawton, Seattle, 
Washington, on August 14, 1944, and to require the Secretary to correct 
the military records (including the record of the court-martial in such 
  case) of any individual as necessary to rectify error or injustice.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 30, 2005

  Mr. McDermott (for himself, Mr. Dicks, Mr. Owens, Mr. Cummings, Mr. 
  Smith of Washington, Mr. Clay, Mr. Meek of Florida, Mr. Inslee, Ms. 
  Kilpatrick of Michigan, Ms. Carson, Mr. Jefferson, Ms. Watson, Ms. 
   Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mrs. Jones of Ohio, Mr. Watt, Mr. 
 Rangel, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Taylor of Mississippi, Ms. Solis, 
    Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Baird, Mr. Larsen of 
Washington, Mr. Honda, and Mr. Grijalva) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To direct the Secretary of the Army to carry out without delay a 
  thorough review of the cases of all 28 individuals convicted in the 
   court-martial arising from a disturbance at Fort Lawton, Seattle, 
Washington, on August 14, 1944, and to require the Secretary to correct 
the military records (including the record of the court-martial in such 
  case) of any individual as necessary to rectify error or injustice.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The largest and longest United States Army court-
        martial of World War II took place in 1944 at Fort Lawton, in 
        Seattle, Washington.
            (2) Forty-three defendants, all of them African American, 
        were charged with rioting, carrying a maximum penalty of life 
        in prison, and three of those defendants were also charged with 
        the first-degree murder of Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian 
        prisoner of war, carrying a maximum penalty of death.
            (3) The alleged crimes occurred at Fort Lawton on the night 
        of August 14, 1944, in a segregated area reserved for African 
        American enlisted men of the United States Army and for an 
        Italian Service Unit (ISU).
            (4) On August 14, 1944, a member of the 650th Port Company 
        (an African American unit at the fort) had a brief fistfight 
        with a member of the 28th Italian Service Unit. Over the next 
        45 minutes, approximately 200 African American soldiers from 
        all three port companies entered the adjacent Italian Service 
        Unit area and a disturbance ensued. Some portion of that group 
        used fence posts, rocks, bricks, and knives to injure members 
        of the Italian unit and four American soldiers assigned to the 
        Italian unit. After military police arrived and order was 
        restored, 24 men were taken to the hospital for treatment.
            (5) On August 15, 1944, two military policemen on patrol 
        spotted the lifeless body of Italian prisoner of war, Private 
        Guglielmo Olivotto, lynched with a rope tied to an obstacle 
        course cable.
            (6) On October 28, 1944, Brigadier General Elliot D. Cooke 
        of the Army's Inspector General Office filed a report with the 
        commanding general of Army Service Forces. After spending 
        several weeks to take the recorded sworn testimony of 164 
        witnesses, General Cooke made numerous conclusions, all of 
        which highlighted the fact that the Army's investigation was 
        deeply flawed and, in the words of the General himself, was 
        ``reprehensible''.
            (7) As a direct result of General Cooke's report, the Fort 
        Lawton commanding officer was relieved of his command, the fort 
        provost marshal was reassigned, and two white military 
        policemen who failed to intervene at the outset of the 
        disturbance were court-martialed. Nonetheless, the trial of 43 
        African American soldiers charged as a result of the 
        disturbance proceeded.
            (8) The defendants were tried in a group, and all 43 shared 
        two Army defense counsel, who were given just 10 days to 
        prepare the defense. The court-martial lasted 24 trial days.
            (9) The Cooke Report and its voluminous transcripts were in 
        the possession of the Army prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel Leon 
        Jaworski, throughout the trial. When defense attorney Major 
        William Beeks requested access to the report in open court, 
        Lieutenant Colonel Jaworski refused, and the members of the 
        court-martial panel refused to intervene.
            (10) The central prosecution witness was an Italian 
        prisoner of war whom United States Army intelligence had 
        previously identified as ``probably pro-Nazi,'' a fact not made 
        available to the defense.
            (11) The military policemen who had failed to intervene at 
        the outset of the disturbance were witnesses for the 
        prosecution. The fact that both were to be court-martialed for 
        their role in the disturbance was not made known to the 
        defense.
            (12) The prosecution was unable to produce a murder weapon 
        at trial, nor did it offer any witness or physical evidence 
        linking any of the defendants to the death of the Italian 
        prisoner of war.
            (13) Twenty-eight defendants were found guilty of rioting 
        and two were also found guilty of manslaughter. All were 
        sentenced to a period of confinement, for periods ranging from 
        six months to 25 years, with the average period of confinement 
        to which they were sentenced being 7.5 years, and all but one 
        of those convicted received a dishonorable discharge.
            (14) On April 19, 1945, a three-member panel of the United 
        States Army Board of Review, faced with one of the most 
        voluminous trial transcripts of the war, summarily dismissed 
        all appeals without comment.
            (15) Of the 27 soldiers whose sentences included a 
        dishonorable discharge, a few re-enlisted at the end of their 
        prison term and eventually obtained an honorable discharge. The 
        rest spent or are spending the rest of their lives with the 
        dishonorable discharge on their military records.

SEC. 2. REVIEW OF FORT LAWTON COURT-MARTIAL CASES.

    (a) Review.--The Secretary of the Army shall carry out without 
delay a thorough review of the cases of all 28 individuals convicted in 
the court-martial arising from a disturbance at Fort Lawton, Seattle, 
Washington on August 14, 1944. The purpose of the review shall be to 
determine the validity of the original findings and sentences and the 
extent, if any, to which racial prejudice or other improper factors now 
known may have tainted the original investigations and trials.
    (b) Report.--Not later than six months after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report 
on the results of the review under subsection (a). The Secretary shall 
include in the report the Secretary's findings and a statement of the 
actions that Secretary has taken, and intends to take, as a result of 
such review.
    (c) Correction of Records.--If the Secretary determines that the 
conviction of an individual in any case reviewed under subsection (a) 
was in error or an injustice, then, notwithstanding any other provision 
of law, the Secretary shall correct that individual's military records 
(including the record of the court-martial in such case) as necessary 
to rectify the error or injustice.
                                 <all>