Professional Documents
Culture Documents
83 1
on his behalf can make and do make applications for clemency and leniency ,
and I can say from my own positive knowledge that in the exercise of clemency ,
even during the period of the war, while I was in this office a fair and libera l
attitude was exercised toward prisoners, and of course since the return o f
conditions approximating those of peace a more liberal attitude has naturall y
been adopted .
Q. In your judgment, how does this protection compare with the protectio n
which accused prisoners get in the civil courts?A . I would say on the whol e
that the prisoner is afforded as careful protection of his substantial right s
when his ease has finally passed through the Judge Advocate General's Offic e
to the Secretary of War or the President as afforded him in the civil criminal
courts of this country . I do not mean by this answer to intimate that no change s
whatever should be made in our court-martial procedure . For instance . I
believe that the presence of a Judge Advocate learned in the law at each
general court-martial trial would be advisable and that his duty would b e
similar to that of the judge in the criminal case who would charge the cour t
as the criminal judge charges the jury, as to the law applicable in the cas e
and that the law as so laid down by the Judge Advocate must be accepte d
by the court. Again I feel that perhaps the power of the reviewing authority t o
reconvene a court and send back the case for reconsideration after the court ha s
acquitted the accused is one that is of doubtful expediency and perhap s
subject to some abuse .
Q . What, in your opinion, has been the effect, if any, upon the morale o f
the office of the Judge Advocate General of this controversy which has bee n
going on in the public press?A . Of course, I think that the so-called contro-
versy has had a somewhat unsettling and disturbing effect upon the member s
of the Judge Advocate General's Office . I think as a whole the men have fel t
that the work under Lieut. Col . Ansell, as well as under Gen . Crowder and
Gen . Kreger, has been well done by an exceptionally able staff of lawyers ,
if I may be permitted to say so, and they further feel that perhaps not in-
tentionally but none the less inevitable the public has received a wholly wron g
impression of military justice as administered under the Judge Advocat e
General .
EXHIBIT 26 .