STATEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE ON THE SENTENCES OF EIGHT NAZI SABOTEURS LANDED BY SUBMARINE ON THE LONG ISLAND AND FLORIDA SHORES ON JUNE 13 AND 17, 1942

August 8, 1942.

White House news release.

The President completed his review of the findings and sentences of the Military Commission appointed by him on July 2, 942 which tried the eight Nazi saboteurs.

The President approved the judgment of the Military Commission that all of the prisoners were guilty and that they be given the death sentence by electrocution.

However, there was a unanimous recommendation by the Commission, concurred in by the Attorney General and the Judge Advocate General of the Army, that the sentence of two of the prisoners be commuted to life imprisonment because of their assistance to the Government of the United States in the apprehension and conviction of the others.

The commutation directed by the President in the case of Burger was to confinement at hard labor for life. In the case of Dasch, the sentence was commuted by the President to confinement at hard labor for thirty years.

The electrocutions began at noon today. Six of the prisoners were electrocuted. The other two were confined to prison.

The records in all eight cases will be sealed until the end of the war.


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