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Show WILSON OVERRULES SENTEICEOF DEATH Disapproves Court-Martial Punishment for Four Soldiers Sol-diers in France. WASHINGTON, May President Wilson disapproved today the sentence of four American soldiers in France ordered to be shot. Sentences of two of the men, Privates Olon Ledoyen and Stanley G. Fishback, were commuted to three years' confinement. Privates Forest D. Sebastian Sebas-tian and Jess Cook were granted full pardons. par-dons. Sebastian and Cook, who were pardoned, par-doned, were convicted of sleeping at sentry sen-try posts. Ledoyen and Fishback were sentenced for disobeying orders. They will serve their three-year terms at Leavenworth. President Wilson's action was taken on the recommendation of Secretary Baker, who made a personal Investigation of the case. In granting pardon to Sebastian and Cook, the president said he did so in view of their extreme youth and the fact that their offense was wholly free from conscious con-scious disregard of duty. Both were ordered or-dered sent back to their companies. Because they were understood to be the first of the kind in the expeditionary forces, the four cases have attracted considerable con-siderable attention. i General Pershing, under army regulations, regula-tions, holds specific authority to carry out sentences imposed by military courts, but he referred the records of the proceedings proceed-ings to the war department for final review, re-view, and, through the department, to the president. Officials of the judge-advocate-general's department spent weeks in carefully reviewing the testimony, finally deciding that the court's action had been legal throughout and upholding the sentences. sen-tences. Major-General Enoch Crowder himself wrote the official indorsement stating the findings, and the cases were then sent by Secretary Baker to the White House. |