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40 Historical Facts Accepted as Real For Many Years

Khalid Elhassan February 14, 2020 34 min

Albrecht Gessler - William Tell — William Tell. Learn Swiss-German

37. The Miscarriage of Justice That Didn’t Happen

Martin Sheen as Eddie Slovik in the 1974 movie ‘The Execution of Private Slovik’. Exec Privilege

In 1974, The Execution of Private Slovik, starring Martin Sheen, was released. It posthumously catapulted Eddie Slovik, a US Army private executed for desertion during WWII, to fame. It also made his fate, which was depicted in the movie as a miscarriage of justice, into a cause célèbre for many, including death penalty opponents.

To the extent that people today know of Private Slovik, most associate him with the miscarriage of justice depicted in the film. In reality – whatever one’s position on the death penalty – Slovik’s fate was one he brought upon himself. As seen below, his conviction and execution stemmed from a cynical scheme he tried to carry out, that ended up backfiring in spectacular fashion.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.