more information contact Ellen: ejill@comcast.net

Visit www.tfec.org/angle to apply.

Know a student who is not yet in a 3-year J.D. program, but plans to attend? Please have them visit www.tfec.org/faerieanglereminders/ to sign up to receive annual reminders about the availability of this scholarship.

We do still have a few tickets left for sale! They are $25 each and can be purchased by visiting the link here. All proceeds from this event will go directly to our agency. 

We hope to see you there! 

As you all know, we are having our Bi-Annual Bench Bar Conference this year at the Bedford Springs Resort. The date is October 7, 2022.

The attached document outlines the updates for distance learning through the 2023 compliance period. The PACLE website has been updated. https://www.pacle.org/ Please click on the link below to read the guidelines provided by the PACLE Board. 

The complete member list is updated quarterly and available to you and your staff two ways.

You may download and print a PDF from the members' section of our website (log in required). Or you may email Amelia at director@franklinbar.org to receive a PDF or excel document anytime.

The date is November 11, 1944, and the accused stands before a court martial in Rotgen, Germany. It is a bitterly cold day, and the makeshift courtroom bears the scars of war. The accused is no stranger to courtrooms, having been a petty criminal for much of his life. Before the accused sits a panel of nine divisional officers, who will serve as his judges. All are staff officers because the division’s combat officers are all engaged in savage fighting in Hurtgen Forest not far away. The accused has long wished for this day and is confident in the outcome. He does not fear a jail sentence, having done two previous stints in prison. He does however fear the Germans and wants nothing to do with combat. He has made his intention to avoid combat crystal clear even if it means a lengthy sentence, but he believes at most he will be incarcerated for the duration of the war. He allows his representative to offer little evidence on his behalf and refuses to testify. The prosecution is efficient and competent but the facts, and the verdict, were never really in doubt, only the sentence. After a short recess, the judges return to announce their verdict. The accused does not hear what he expected. The accused’s name is Private Eddie Slovik, of the United States Army, and he is about to hear his death sentence. The presiding colonel finds him guilty of desertion to avoid hazardous duty in time of war and sentences him “[t]o be dishonorably discharged from the service, to forfeit all pay and allowances due or to become due, and to be shot to death with musketry.” Slovik is visibly shocked and manages not a word as he is lead from the court. 

On January 31, 1945, an unrepented Slovik, was marched out to a post in the village of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Frances. He was secured in an upright position to the post and a black hood was put over his head. Slovik told some of the soldiers guarding him, “[t]hey’re not shooting me for deserting the United States Army, thousands of guys have done that. They just need to make an example out of somebody and I'm it because I'm an ex-con. I used to steal things when I was a kid, and that's what they are shooting me for. They're shooting me for the bread and chewing gum I stole when I was 12 years old.” The judges at his court-martial were in fact never informed about his previous criminal record. Slovik is in uniform, but all the insignia have been stripped off because of his dishonorable discharge. Twelve marksmen were chosen from his regiment to act as a firing squad. Eleven of the twelve rifles were loaded with bullets. One of the rifles has been loaded with a blank round, to give all the men the hope that they did not fire a fatal shot. All eleven bullets hit their target, but none was immediately fatal, and the order was given to reload the rifles. While this was being done Slovik expired from his wounds. He was twenty-four years old when he died. For reasons that will soon become apparent, Eddie Slovik is unique. 

Edward Donald Slovik was born in Detroit, Michigan on February 18, 1920. He grew up in poverty and from the age of twelve had frequent run-ins with the law. He spent much of the years between 1937 and 1942 in prison with brief stints of parole. Things did seem to be turning around for him when he was paroled for a final time in April 1942. Slovik was not eligible for the draft because he was on parole and was able to maintain steady and lucrative employment in Detroit’s auto industry. He was married to Antoinette Wisnewiski in November of that year and was doing well for the first time in his life. That changed for him when the parole board decided to release him early from parole so he would become eligible for the draft. World War II put large demands on American manpower and nearly all able-bodied men were being called up to serve. From the beginning Slovik was unhappy with being drafted and tried at every turn to avoid being shipped overseas or, worse yet, sent to combat. In this, like at so much else, he would fail. What the United States Army needed more then anything else in Europe was riflemen. The Army had badly underestimated the percentage of infantry they would need in a modern army. They were desperate to make up the numbers, especially as German resistance stiffened, and casualties mounted.   

Upon arrival in France, Slovik was assigned as a replacement to the 109^th Infantry Regiment of the 28^th Infantry Division. Coincidentally, the 28^th Division, better known as the Keystone Division, is made up of Pennsylvania National Guard Units. Slovik joined a small group of replacements being rushed to the front through some of most devastated ground in all of France. This bleak journey ended with them being unable to find their unit in darkness when they came under bombardment. The replacements were ordered to dig in. The bombardment lasted most of the night and Slovik was shaken and frightened. He and another private, John Tankey, were separated from their unit, and it moved out without them. It is not clear if Slovik intended to be left behind, but Tankey seems to have honestly been lost. Both men reported to a Canadian regiment that had taken over the vacated town and a letter was sent to their unit. For the next six months Slovik got his wish and remined with the Canadians in what was now a rear area. All evidence is that he went out of his way to make himself useful to this new unit. However, when a new commander took over the regiment, he started looking into why he had two Americans in his unit, and they were transferred back to the 28^th. 

No charges were brought against either of the men for their absence. With the confusion of war, replacements getting lost trying to reach their new units was a common problem and no one was inclined to look further into the matter. Tankey would serve with the regiment until he was wounded a month later. Slovik had other plans; he actually demanded a court martial for being separated from the unit. When his Captain, Ralph Grotte, seemed disinclined to do so, Slovik asked “[i]f I leave again will it be desertion?” He was told that it would be. Slovik told Grotte that he was “too scared, to nervous” to go into combat and requested a transfer to a unit in the rear. Grotte refused and assigned him to a rifle platoon but took no other disciplinary action against him. Grotte even talked to Slovik’s friend Tankey, saying “you better stop your buddy He is getting himself in serious trouble.” Nothing either man could do anything to change Slovik’s mind, and he deserted that night. 

Slovik traveled several miles to the rear and turned himself in to a military cook. He handed him, and later the military police officer and Lieutenant the cook summoned, a signed confession. The Confession read as follows:

Both the MP and the Lieutenant read the note and encouraged Slovik to destroy it and return to his unit. Slovik refused and he was referred to a Lieutenant Colonel Ross Henbest. Henbest also gave Slovik a change to return to his unit and destroy the letter, which was again refused. No choice was left but to arrest Slovik and confine him to the stockade awaiting court-martial which is exactly what he wanted. The division’s JAG officer, Colonel Henry Sommers, again offered Slovik an out. If he agreed to return to combat the charges would be suspended and he could be sent to a new unit with a clean slate. Slovik responded “I’ve made up my mind. I’ll take the court martial.” He was examined by Army psychiatrists who ruled out any mental illness or post-traumatic stress (“shell shock” in the parlance of the time). Slovik gave off an air of confidence bordering on arrogance that he would only receive a jail sentence.

You may be wondering why Slovik was so confident. He knew something you probably didn’t- the U.S. Army had not executed a soldier solely for desertion since the Civil War. Coincidentally, the deserter in that case was another Pennsylvania infantry man. During WWII, the U.S. Army sentenced 21,000 soldiers for desertion and while forty-eight others received death sentences, none of them were executed. Death sentences had to be unanimous and even then, there were many layers of appeals that invariably seemed to commute such sentences. It seemed that judges and commanders actively looked for any, even comparatively minor, mitigating evidence to justify clemency. 

Slovik was one of only 141 soldiers executed by the U.S. Army during the war and the post war period. Slovik is the only one that was not convicted of either rape or murder. Most of these names would be unfamiliar to even the most dedicated historian, other than Eddie Leonski, a serial killer executed for murdering at least three Australian women. The U.S. Army also executed fourteen German POWs after the war, convicted for murdering fellow POWs suspected of being collaborators or informants. These executions were held after the war to avoid retaliation on Allied POWs. The U.S. Navy did not execute any sailors or marines during WWII, although they did hang fourteen Japanese nationals, convicted of war crimes following the war. Slovik had also known of several deserters who received jail sentences. With knowledge that dissertation had not resulted in an execution since 1865, Slovik’s gamble does not seem so ill-conceived.

So why did Slovik become such an outlier? There are a number of factors that may have played a part in condemning him. His brazenness certainly didn’t help. His goal to avoid danger in the war was obvious and his written confession damming. His insistence that he would run again if sent to the Front was especially damaging. One of the judges offered him the chance to delete that line of the statement, suggesting that it would avoid the risk of the full sentence (death). Slovik declined. He was directly challenging the Army’s right to demand that its soldiers fight. Slovik was not a conscientious objector and offered no justification for why he should not have to fight. He was simply afraid and did not wish to fight. The other punishments available to the Army were problematic. Slovik wished to be imprisoned to avoid combat, so this was neither punishment nor deterrent. Slovik backed the Army into a position that effected its ability to effectively discipline deserters. Discipline is necessary in a conscript army where many do not wish to fight.   

Timing was decidedly against Slovik. His court-martial and appellate review happened during some of the darkest times for U.S. soldiers on the Western Front. The court-martial was held nine days after the 28^th division was committed to the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. This would prove to be the longest battle in US Army history, in which they would suffer 33,000 casualties. The claustrophobic and dense forest was heavily defended and part of the German Siegfried Line. The terrain prevented the allies from using their superior numbers, artillery, and air power to any effect. Morale was cratering to the point that desertion and self-inflicted wounds were becoming serious problems as more and more men were fed into this meatgrinder. The witnesses at the court martial had to be pulled, bedraggled and mud stained, from the front lines where many of their comrades were dying. This could not have been lost on the judges who condemned Slovik. Although it does not appear, as some have argued, that his execution was meant to set an example: if the army meant his execution to be a warning, they did a poor job of it. Slovik’s execution was not widely publicized and only his regiment received any official notification that it had taken place. 

The timing also hurt when his case was being reviewed. Slovik’s divisional commander, Major General Norman D. Cota, had to approve the death sentence. His troops were still desperately engaged in the Hurtgen when he confirmed the death sentence on November 27, 1944. He is quoted as saying that, if he had overturned the death sentence, “I don’t know how I could have gone to the line and looked a good soldier in the face.” More than 6,000 of the 28^th Division’s soldiers would become casualties during the battle.

The next level of review required the approval of European Theater Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower. A report was prepared for Eisenhower by his staff attorney who recommended execution because Slovik had, “directly challenged the authority of the government, and future discipline depends upon a resolute reply to this challenge.” On December 7, 1944, Slovik wrote Eisenhower directly, pleading for his life. The fact that he repeatedly lied about his understanding of what desertion entailed and his intention to do so did him no good.

 

In the midst of this review the Germans launched the massive surprise attack that would become known as the Battle of the Bulge. This offensive unhinged much of the southern front of the US Army, causing chaos. The early stages of the Battle of the Bulge saw the second largest mass surrender in U.S. military history. These surrenders were surpassed in raw numbers only by the surrenders at Bataan in the Philippines. Entire regiments surrendered wholesale before the German onslaught and many others were routed. What was left of the front was desperately held by outnumbered and often isolated units. One of those stubborn units, that executed a fighting withdrawal and helped stabilize the line, was Slovik’s 28^th Division. The 28^th traded ground and blood for time, allowing the Allies to rush reserves into the fight. They paid a bloody price, sustaining even more casualties then in the Hurtgen, in a far shorter period. Some of the Division’s units were completely annihilated slowing the Germans. The more famous defense of Bastogne was only possible because of the three days in which the 28^th slowed the German armored spearheads. While the offensive would eventually be crushed, on December 23, 1944, when Eisenhower confirmed the death sentence it was still in doubt. Slovik’s refusal to fight must have looked particularly stark when compared to such examples. On January 6, 1945, a final review of the JAG attorneys voted to confirm the death sentence and Eisenhower issued the execution order. 

Slovik’s refusal to offer mitigating evidence was perhaps his biggest mistake. His case was not hopeless when compared to other soldiers who received lesser sentences or had their death sentences commuted. During his time with the Canadians he had, by all accounts, been a good and useful soldier. He was well liked and provided valuable service in a number of ways. He was especially noted for his ability to scrounge hard to find items for the unit. As we have seen, after his release from prison in 1942, he seems to have turned his life around and become a useful member of society. His judges and those who would review his case heard nothing of this. Nor was this a question of incompetent counsel. The records are clear that his advocate knew his business but was following a client’s ill-conceived orders, a fate with which many an attorney reading this can sympathize. Slovik gave no sympathetic judge or commander anything they could hang their hat on to excuse his conduct. The presiding judge even called for two extra votes to confirm the death sentence, giving any wavering judges a chance to change their mind. All three votes were unanimous for death.  

The circumstances of Slovik’s death were largely unknown at the time and for years afterwards. He was buried in a numbered grave in Plot E of Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in Fère-en-Tardenois, France. This plot is specifically for the other ninety-five soldiers in the European theater executed by the U.S. Army. His wife didn’t find out he had been shot until 1953, she was only told he had died dishonorably, and she was informed by an author interested in writing a book that touched on her husband’s execution, not the military. This resulted in her losing all military benefits and Slovik’s military life insurance was denied. Mrs. Slovik and others have asked nine different presidents to pardon Slovik, all have refused. There was also a long and contentious battle over his remains. Mrs. Slovik tried until her death to have his body released to the family for burial in the United States. In 1987, President Ronald Regan eventually agreed to allow the body to be exhumed and transported to Detroit where it lies next to his wife.

Desertion in time of war remains a capital offense but no one has been executed for it since Slovik. The U.S. Armed Forces maintain the ability to seek death sentences for a number of crimes that a civilian prosecutor could not. In the Post War period, changes in views on the death penalty have influenced military executions. The Army has not executed anyone since April 13, 1961, when John A. Bennett was executed for the rape and attempted murder of an eleven-year-old child. Since that time six soldiers have been sentenced to death by the U.S. Army. Each was convicted of multiple counts of murder. Despite several scheduled executions, five of them remain on death row and the others’ sentences were overturned on appeal.