TRIAL BY OWN COURTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20860, 12 August 1942, Page 5

TRIAL BY OWN COURTS

AMERICAN SOLDIERS PROCEDURE IN BRITAIN (British Official Wireless.) (10.30 a.m.) RUGBY, Aug. 10. Brigadier-General L. H. Hedrick, assistant Judge-Advocate-General of the United States Army, will be responsible for the administration of military justice within the United States forces in the British Isles under the agreement reached recently between the British and American Governments. In a statement announcing this, the headquarters of the European theatre of operations of the United States Armv outlines the procedure to be adopted. In general, all American military and naval personnel accused of a crime or who violate British laws will be tried by American courtsmartial. The restoration of jurisdiction to British courts,, however, is also provided for in some cases. The maximum punishments provided by the United States military laws are, as a rule, more severe than those imposed under American civil laws. The arrangement will provide for the arrest by the British authorities, if necessary, and the suspect will then be turned over for trial by the, American authorities. Persons found guilty by American courts-martial will be imprisoned in Europe, but those serving sentences about five years or more will be sent back to penal institutions in the United States. _ Death sentences will be carried out in the theatre of operations by hanging or shooting. Hanging, it is stated, is considered more ignominious than shooting, and is the usual method of executing persons sentenced to death for such crimes as spying, murder and The procedure has already been put into operation, and the first American court-martial held in this country met to-day. The accused was a private charged with violation of the 92nd article of war.