Crime of the Day: On this, the last day of January, 1945, 24-year old former U.S. Army private Eddie Slovik, was executed for desertion. He was the first American soldier to be executed for this crime since the Civil War. Even though more than 21,000 Americans were giving varying sentences for desertion during WWII, Sloviks was the only death sentence that was actually carried out. He admitted his crime and maintained that if sent back to combat he would desert again. The firing squad was made up of 12 U.S. soldiers using standard M1 rifles with one bullet each, while one of the bullets was a blank. Martin Sheen starred as Private Slovik in the 1974 made-for-TV movie, The Execution of Private Slovik.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:08:18 +0000
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