This week on Houston Newsmakers: The trial of 64 Camp Logan soldiers remains the largest murder trial in U.S. history. This trial in combination with subsequent Courts Martials is one of the reasons behind efforts for clemency. Tune in at 10 a.m. on KPRC 2
A church in San Antonio had to be used for the Court Martial of the Camp Logan soldiers because it was the only venue large enough for this trial.The trial of 64 Camp Logan soldiers remains the largest murder trial in U.S. history and this trial in combination with subsequent Courts Martials is one of the reasons behind efforts for clemency.
Eleven of those killed on the night of August 23rd of 1917 were White Houstonians. Some of the Camp Logan soldiers were surely responsible but advocates say the segregated and extreme treatment by Whites was the spark that caused it. Bishop James Dixon II, President of the Houston Chapter of the NAACP says the challenge then and now is to find a fair and legal way to treat the accused.
Jason Holt was a little boy when he first heard the stories about his relative who had been hanged in Texas in 1917. As an adult and an attorney, he now is one of those fighting to clear the name of Private 1st Class T.C. Hawkins and the others convicted. “People now are beginning to understand that what took place on that fateful evening and the resulting trial and court martial really was a miscarriage of justice,” he said on Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall.