Evening star., 1947-02-18
Rapid Veterans
Report Planned
In Crime Cases
Conferees Mop Steps
To Find Out If Cause
Is War Emotion

to his war experiences was in
preparation today as both Justice
Department and Veterans Admin
istration officials went to work on
the overall problem of veterans
who get in trouble with the law.
Chief Justice Bolitha J. Laws Of
District Court, who conferred late
yesterday with Justice Department
and Veterans Administration Of
ficials, said these steps had been
agreed on:
/. The United States Attorney
will check with the Police Depart
ment to determine whether each
person arraigned is a veteran or not.
.. Where accused persons are
veterans, the United States Attor-
ney will send a QUESTIONABLE to the
Veterans Administration to find out
If the veteran had combat service,
any injuries in training or combat,
any service disqualification and any
thing in his record to indicate his
military service might be related to
his crime.
3. Special sections will be set up
in the Justice Department and the
Veterans Administration to work
out the questionnaire as well as to
study some of the other problems
brought out at the conference.
Proving Ground Here.
For the present, Justice Laws
said, the singing out of veterans
would be limited to Washington,
which will be a sort of proving
ground for new methods OF handling
veterans cases.
Another meeting was set for
March 8. Invited to attend will be
Superintendent Winfred Overholser
of st. Elizabeth's Hospital; James V.
Bennett, director of the Federal
Bureau of Prisons: Municipal Court
officials, and possibly representa-
tives from the armed forces.
Justice Laws said the proposed
QUESTIONABLE would provide quick
method of finding out, before trial,
if a veterans war experiences had
any relation to his postwar record.
E. E. Odom, Veterans Administra-
ton solicitor, who attended the con-
ference, indicated that Veterans Ad-
ministration psychiatrists might be
asked to look over the records and
report their findings on the ques-
tionnaire, Justice Laws said.
War Experience AS Grounds.
If veteran had no criminal
record before service. was shot down
during the war and, after his dis
charge, committed one offense after
another, Justice Laws said, there
would be some grounds for assuming
the offenses had some connection
with his war experiences.
If there is no indication on the
QUESTIONABLE that the veteran is a
victim" of the war, Justice Laws
explained, his case will be tried in
the normal course of events. But
If the record indicates the veteran is
emotionally unstable because of his
war experiences, the jurist added,
the prosecutor and the defense
counsel presumably would get to-
gether to obtain the defendants
consent to have his war record
brought into court and to submit
to a psychiatric examination.
The QUESTIONABLE, he said, will be
sent. out in Municipal as well as
District Court cases. Also, police
questioning to find out if an ac-
cused person is veteran will apply
to women as well as men, to take
in women veterans. Police will be
asked to get service serial numbers
and Veterans Administration claim
numbers.
Major Problems Ahead.
Major problem still to be settled,
Justice Law said, is what to do with
veteran offenders once it is deter
mined that war-induced emotional
disorder led to commission of the
crime.
The jurist said he had been in
einotionally upset but not insane
could be treated in Veterans Ad-
ministration hospital only if the
prosecutor and the courts relin-
quished all control over him. The
Veterans Administration, it was ex-
planned, would have to release him
if he.requested release.
Justice Laws said judges coulc
convict emotionally upset veterans
and put them on probation to 60 te
Veterans Administration hospitals
with the understanding that if they
walked out, they would be sent te
the penitentiary. He said, however
that was an unsatisfactory solution
since a disturbed veteran might
walk out of hospital without being
fully aware of what he was doing
Question of HospitalizatiOn.
Emotionally upset veterans who
have committed crimes might bt
dangerous and cannot remain a.
large, but neither should they be
sent to institutions where they
would associate with hardened
criminals, Justice Laws said.
One question put to them fol
study was whether additional facili.
ties should be provided for con.
finement of emotionally upset
veteran offenders in the Veterans
Administration, or whether the
problem of the veterans should be
tied up with the provisions of ths
Youth Authority Act now pending
in Congress. That act would pro-
vide for training, disqualification
and various types of camps where
young offenders could be rehabili.
tated.
Seek To Expand Data.
On the question of obtaining
veterans records, Mr.. Odom re
ported the Veterans Administration
had the records only where veterans
had filed claims. The conferee
decided, to work on a program O
getting data promptly from thu
armed forces where the records ar
still in their hands.
In addition to Mr.. Odom, th'
conference was attended by I
Lamar Caudle, assistant Attorne!
General in charge of the crimina
division: United States Attorne.
George Morris Fay, and F. ]. Fitz'
gerald, chief attorney in the Wash.
ington regional Office of the Veter'