Subject: Military Justice Denied
From: Gregory Baker
Date: 1/10/04 8:59 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: t

ArtKramr wrote:

The Sad tale of Private Eddie Slovik: Military Justice Denied.


No doubt influenced by "guardhouse lawyers" (other military prison
inmates),
Slovik had apparently believed that he would not be executed but rather
imprisoned until some time after the war ended--when he would be able to
return
to his beloved Antoinette. Three key factors influenced the decision to
execute
him. One was that his police record was included in the clemency
deliberations,
and it counted against him. Another was that desertion had become a problem
for
the U.S. Army in the European theater. General Eisenhower and other
commanders
felt something had to be done about it. Finally, Slovik's case reached the
point when it had to be reviewed and acted on by Eisenhower's headquarters
just
as the U.S. Army was heavily engaged in its bitterest and bloodiest
campaign of
the war in Europe--the Battle of the Bulge.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Slovik doesn't deserve that much sympathy. He was a petty criminal, and
he was dumb, and desertion was a problem. Maybe shooting him and not
the others was the problem.



Not that simple. Desertion must be proven and it must be proven that the
accused had no INTENTION of ever returning. All a deserter has to say was that
he was on his way back when arrested and desertion becomes AWOL. But with no
lawyer present and no legal advice Slovik was forced to sign a document
stating he had no INTENTION to return, Thus the guilty verdict and the death
sentence. But those inviolved with this court marshall who couldn't keep their
mouths shut let it be known that Ike himself wanted that execution as a lesson
to the large numbers of deserters at that time., As I have said in a number of
other posts, in the military rank and will get its way no matter what.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer