Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-04-21
Shapiro Purdoned

In obtaining presidential pardon
for Sidney Shapiro, who was arbi-
trarily stripped of his commission
and dismissed from the Army nearly
two years ago, the War Department
has indicated its willingness to
rectify an injustice when the facts
are brought to the attention of
responsible military officials.
Shapiro, lieutenant in the Army
Air Forces, was designated in Sep
TENDER, 1943, to serve as counsel
for an enlisted man facing a court
martial on charge Of assault with
intent to rape. The enlisted man
denied the charge and Shapiro was
convinced of his innocence. Since
the case turned on a question of
Identification, Shapiro determined
to test the veracity of the prosecu-
ton witnesses by substituting an
other man for the defendant at the
trial. This strategy worked well in
the sense that the witnesses were
positive in their Identification of the
substitute as being the offender. But
this did not save either the accused
enlisted man or Shapiro.
A few days later the enlisted man
was again brought to trial. The
same witnesses who had erred in the
original Identification reappeared
for the prosecution. This time they
identified Shapiro's client as the
offender. On the basis of this dubi-
Gus testimony he was convicted and
sentenced to five years in prison.
Then proceedings were instituted
against Shapiro, the complaint being
that his ruse had delayed the prog
,ress of the enlisted mans court
martial. The young officer was
compelled to stand trial within
eighty minutes after charges were
served on him, although he asked
for a continuance on the ground
that he had not been given time to
prepare defense. To sum up,
within less than five hours he had
been charged, arraigned, tried, con-
victed and sentenced to be dismissed
from the Army.
Feeling that his career had been
ruined and his reputation perma-
nently damaged, Shapiro tried by
every means at his disposal to secure
a new and fair trial. His appeals
to the War Department met with
nothing-can-be-d done response. He
turned to the civil courts without
avail, the War Department and the
Department of Justice raising the
technical but legally proper plea
that civil judge cannot 60 behind
the findings of a court-martial.
After year and half of fruitless
effort, Shapiro was unable to secure
any correction Of the manifest
injustice which had been done him.
On the fifth of this month The
Star published the first of a series
of editorials setting forth the facts
ana urging That remedial action be
taken. These articles were brought
to the notice of UnderSecretary of
War Patterson, who Immediately
began personal investigation of
the case. AS soon as he became
satisfied that an injustice had been
done, he recommended that Shapiro
be pardoned, which, under the
circumstances, seemed to be the best
method of making amends. The
pardon was signed yesterday by
President Truman, the effect being
to clear Shapiro's name and restore
all of his civil rights.
It is gratifying that the War
Department has seen fit to take this
action. 1t has partially, though not
completely. erased the original in
justice of the Shapiro court-martial,
and, more Importantly, it should in
spire greater care in the conduct of
future Army trials.
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