Unjust WWII Trial Overturned, But Jailed Vet Only Gets $725 in Compensation
Years after a veteran of the United States Army was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, justice was done.
Samuel Snow, a soldier who was stationed at Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington in 1944, was imprisoned for 15 months for a crime that he claims he could not have committed, and in October, the Army Board for Corrections of Military Records overturned his conviction.
Yet the result of the justice was hardly what Snow could have wanted, or expected.
As part of this overturned conviction, Snow was awarded a check in the mail from the Army to compensate him for back pay. His award: $725.
Snow remains one of two defendants still alive from one of the largest military trials of World War II. The subject was the trial was the hanging of an Italian prisoner of war, for which twenty-eight black soldiers-including Snow-were sent to prison.
During this time, in which the military forces were still segregated, all 41 African-American soldiers charged were tried as a group and were provided two attorneys in all.
The recent decision by the Army did not classify Snow as "not guilty," but rather recognized that Snow was not granted a fair trial in the first place.
But of course, there's the question of the money. The $725 check by the government covered the amount that Snow would have made during 15 months of work at the rate at the time.
According to CNN news reports, if the payment had been adjusted for inflation, Snow should have received $7,768.13. And, assuming the $725 was invested in 1946, at which time Snow was discharged from the Army, at 8 percent interest, compounded annually, it would have been worth more than $82,000 by now.
In its defense, the Army said there are no legal provisions that allow it to consider adding accrued interest, adjustments for inflation or compensation for lost benefits. They only have the power to reimburse Snow for lost pay.
But for Snow, whose conduct went under scrutiny in a trial in which he had little to no chance of winning, the Army's policy does nothing to restore him in any way from the injustice committed so many years ago.
After being dishonorably discharged at the end of his military prison term, Snow returned home to the South, where his criminal record, bad conduct discharge and inability to participate in GI benefits made it virtually impossible for him to find honest work and live a normal life.
A former CNN correspondent named Jack Hamann was responsible for bringing Snow's case to the attention of the appropriate authorities, when he wrote about the flawed trial of the 28 African-American soldiers in a book titled "On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of WWII."
His work on the nearly-forgotten case aroused the attention of Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, who asked the Army to review the case.
