The Senate Subcommittee Report
In its report, the subcommittee rejected the most serious charges, including beatings, torture, mock executions and starvation of the defendants. In addition, the subcommittee determined that the commutations of the sentences pronounced by General Clay had occurred because of the U.S. Army's recognition that procedral irregularities could have occurred during the trial.
The commission did not exonerate the defendants or absolve them of guilt and it endorsed the conclusions General Clay issued in the particular case of Lieutenant Christ.
Clay had written thatn "he was personally convinced of the culpability of Lieutenant Christ, and, that for reason his death sentence was fully justified. But, to apply this sentence would be equivalet accepting a bad adminsitration of justice, which led [him], not without reserve, to commute the death penalty to life imprisonment."
Approximately sixteen months after the end of the trial, almosy all of the defendants presented affidavits repudiating their former confessions and alleging aggravated duress of all types.
--GreGen
No comments:
Post a Comment