AmericasBlood.com

Samuel Snow thought when he got a check from the Pentagon that the Army was finally ready to give him the apology and the compensation he’d been denied for 63 years. He was wrong.

The Army imprisoned Snow in 1944 for a crime he says he couldn’t have committed. The military overturned his conviction this year and sent him his back pay for the 15 months he spent in prison: $725.

Snow is one of just two defendants still alive from one of the biggest military trials of World War II.

Twenty-eight black soldiers were sent to prison after an Italian prisoner of war, Guglielmo Olivotto, was found hanged to death following a night of brawling at Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington.

At a time when the military forces were segregated, 41 black soldiers were tried in one large group and were provided two attorneys to defend them all.

According to the Army, 28 of the soldiers were convicted of rioting, including Pvt. Samuel Snow, who spent 15 months behind bars.

Two of those soldiers also were convicted of manslaughter in the death of the POW and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Thirteen of the men were acquitted.

After being released from prison, Snow returned to the segregated South. He arrived home with a criminal record, a bad conduct discharge and no benefits such as those provided by the GI Bill of Rights. He became a janitor.

In October, the Army Board for Corrections of Military Records determined the defendants were denied a fair trial. The board said the prosecutor refused to give defense attorneys access to confidential evidence.

As a result of the findings, the Army overturned the convictions — but stopped short of finding the defendants "not guilty."

"What it is saying is that they didn’t receive their fair day in court," said Army spokesman Col. Dan Baggio.

The Army wrote checks to the surviving defendants as compensation for the back pay they were denied while in prison. Snow assumed that figure would be a substantial amount of money — until the $725 check arrived at his home in central Florida.

If the payment had been adjusted for inflation, Snow would have received $7,768.13, according to the inflation calculator on the Labor Department’s Web site.

If the $725 had been invested in 1946, when Snow was discharged from the Army, at 8 percent interest, compounded annually, it would have been worth more than $82,000 by now.

The Army said there are no legal provisions that allow it to consider adding accrued interest, adjustments for inflation or compensation for lost benefits.

Snow said the size of the check didn’t surprise him. "I didn’t think it was no kind of mistake," he told CNN. "They don’t care."

The case might have been buried in history if not for the work of Seattle author Jack Hamann.

Hamann, a former CNN correspondent, spent years detailing the riot and flawed prosecution of the black American soldiers for his 2005 book, "On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of WWII."

Fort Lawton is now a public park, and most of the buildings have been torn down. But Hamann was able to pinpoint the very spot where Snow says he was knocked unconscious as he left his barracks. The author said it proves Snow was innocent, because he never made it to the Italian POW barracks to join the fight.

"He never had a chance to be involved in the riot," Hamann said. "He was just responding quickly to what he thought was an attack, and he was knocked out of it almost immediately."

The revived story of how Snow and 27 others were convicted on little evidence caught the attention of Congress. U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, asked the Army to review the nearly forgotten case.

"A real injustice had been done to a whole lot of black guys who were serving their country, and somebody had to speak up for them," McDermott said.

McDermott told CNN he does not blame the Army for going by the book but said he will look for ways Congress can help. Snow said he wants his name cleared, medical benefits and retirement pay.

But at age 83 and in poor health, he said he wonders if he will live long enough to see it happen.

An anti-Obama e-mail sent by a Clinton volunteer is causing a stir in Iowa.

(CNN) — One of the recipients of a controversial anti-Barack Obama email forward that put Hillary Clinton’s Iowa campaign on the defensive Wednesday said the volunteer county coordinator who sent the original message may have been unfairly targeted.

“She thinks people misunderstood her intent,” said Gary Hart, who said he spoke with the volunteer, Judy Rose, a short time ago. The former Clinton volunteer insisted “she was just sending it along so people know what kind of information is out there,” not because she believed the charges herself. He added that Rose is baffled by the uproar.

The controversy began early Wednesday when an Iowa supporter of presidential candidate Chris Dodd posted a comment on the liberal Daily Kos Web site, accusing an unnamed Clinton volunteer of forwarding an anti-Muslim e-mail aimed at the Illinois senator, containing charges that have been widely discredited.

The e-mail — one of several hoaxes that have been circulating since the Illinois senator announced his candidacy — claims that Obama is a Muslim whose campaign is part of a plot to destroy the United States. Obama is not, and never has been, a Muslim.

Within minutes, Clinton Internet Director Peter Daou posted a message from campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle disavowing the remarks. The New York senator’s campaign immediately severed all links with Rose, a Jones County volunteer.

The war of words between both candidates, who are running neck and neck in Iowa polls less than a month before Election Day, has reached a fever pitch over the past week. Within the past few days, both have asked supporters to track attacks and “dirty tricks” aimed at their campaigns.

The Obama campaign is not commenting on the incident.