Edward F. Lyons Jr.

Edward F. Lyons Jr.
Edward F. Lyons Jr.
Born	17 September 1899; Boston, Massachusetts, U.S
Died	28 December 1990 (aged 91); Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Captain
Alma mater	Northeastern University School of Law
Spouse(s)	Mary E. Lyons ( née Moloney)
Other work	Chief, Pentagon War Crimes Branch; Member, Security Screening Board; Member, Clemency and Parole Board for War Criminals;

Last updated March 11, 2023

Edward Francis Lyons Jr. was a World War II veteran who supported the prosecution of German war criminals.^[1] He served as an intelligence officer at a prisoner-of-war camp for Germans in Oklahoma ^[2] before joining the prosecution staff at the Borkum Island trial, a case involving the assault and execution of seven United States airmen.^[3]

Early life

Lyons was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 17, 1899.^[4] After graduating from Northeastern University Law School in 1921,^[2] he practiced law until 1933 at which time he was offered a position with the Home Owners' Loan Corporation of the US federal government. Lyons soon became the corporation’s assistant regional counsel for New York, New England and New Jersey,^[1] after which he began his army career.

Army career

Lyons was drafted into the Army on June 2, 1943.^[4] He began his career as an intelligence officer at a German prisoner-of-war camp in El Reno, Oklahoma, where he remained until 1945. Lyons spent the next year as part of the first group of Army lawyers tending to war crime investigations and trials in Europe. He was honorably discharged from active duty in 1946, and from the Reserve on April 1, 1953.^[5]

Borkum Island trial

At the end of World War II, Allied forces including the United States, Great Britain, Russia and France, agreed to prosecute German war criminals on the basis of military law. Negotiations included the reconciliation of European concepts of justice with those of the United States, which sought to criminalize aggressive warfare as opposed to specific war crimes.^[6]

Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief war crimes prosecutor for the United States Supreme Court at the time of the Borkum Island trial, told the New York Herald Tribune , "It seemed a very great mistake to let this war end on a note of simple vengeance. It would be a shame to close the war without making the story known to the people." Jackson also hoped that the war crime trials would provide further evidence to the public for recognizing the "incipient stage" of Fascism, alive and well at the time of publication.^[6]

As part of this agreement, Lyons and two other Army lawyers were chosen to serve on the prosecution staff of the 1945 Borkum Island trial in Ludwisburg, Germany.^[3] In the trial, 15 German defendants were accused of forcing 7 U.S. airmen to make an eight-mile "death march" across the island of Borkum, which ultimately resulted in their executions.^[3] The prosecution staff tackled the challenge of proving that the march through the island was planned in a way that would result in "maximum exposure to violence".^[3] Lyons and his colleagues proved their case in part through eye witness testimony asserting that officers of the guard leading the march punished those guards who were considered to be too lenient on the U.S. airmen.^[3]

Upon completion of the trial, Lyons returned to the United States and was discharged from active duty.^[2]

Civilian life

Upon discharge, Lyons served as a U.S. Army civilian employee in the Pentagon's War Crimes Branch. Here he continued to support the prosecution of German war criminals for the remainder of his career. He joined the Security Screening Board in 1955 and the Clemency and Parole Board for War Criminals in 1957. Lyons was discharged from the Army Reserve in 1953, and retired from the War Crimes Branch as chief in 1959.^[2]

Death

Lyons died at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital on December 28, 1990 at the age of 91, leaving behind his wife Mary E. Lyons ( née Moloney).^[1]

Related Research Articles

The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.

Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German Generaloberst who served as the Chief of the Operations Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht – the German Armed Forces High Command – throughout World War II.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during the Second World War. The IMTFE was modeled after the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg, Germany, which prosecuted the leaders of Nazi Germany for their war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity.

Tomoyuki Yamashita was a Japanese officer and convicted war criminal, who was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore, with his accomplishment of conquering Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earning him the sobriquet "The Tiger of Malaya" and led to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calling the ignominious fall of Singapore to Japan the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British military history. Yamashita was assigned to defend the Philippines from the advancing Allied forces later in the war, and while unable to prevent the Allied advance, he was able to hold on to part of Luzon until after the formal Surrender of Japan in August 1945.

Telford Taylor was an American lawyer and professor. Taylor was known for his role as lead counsel in the prosecution of war criminals after World War II, his opposition to McCarthyism in the 1950s, and his outspoken criticism of American actions during the Vietnam War.

The Subsequent Nuremberg trials were twelve military tribunals for war crimes committed by the leaders of Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The Nuremberg Military Tribunals occurred after the Nuremberg trials, held by the International Military Tribunal, which concluded in October 1946. The subsequent Nuremberg trials were held by U.S. military courts and dealt with the cases of crimes against humanity committed by the business community of Nazi Germany, specifically the crimes of using slave labor and plundering occupied countries, and the war-crime cases of Wehrmacht officers who committed atrocities against Allied prisoners of war, partisans, and guerrillas.

The Milch Trial was the second of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas J. Dodd</span> U.S. federal and Nuremberg Trials prosecutor, Congressman, and Senator

Thomas Joseph Dodd was an American attorney and diplomat who served as a United States Senator and Representative from Connecticut. He is the father of former U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd and Thomas J. Dodd Jr., who served as the United States Ambassador to Uruguay from 1993 to 1997 and to Costa Rica from 1997 to 2001.

The Dachau trials, also known as the Dachau Military Tribunal, handled the prosecution of almost every war criminal captured in the U.S. military zones in Allied-occupied Germany and in Allied-occupied Austria, and the prosecutions of military personnel and civilian persons who committed war crimes against the American military and American citizens. The war-crime trials were held within the compound of the former Dachau concentration camp by military tribunals authorized by the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Third Army.

Henry T. King Jr. was an attorney who served as a U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946-47. Late in his career, he became a law professor and an activist, writer, and lecturer working on international law and war crimes; David M. Crane has described King as "the George Washington of modern international law".

In the practice of international law, Command responsibility is the legal doctrine of hierarchical accountability for war crimes, whereby a commanding officer (military) and a superior officer (civil) is legally responsible for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by his subordinates; thus, a commanding officer always is accountable for the acts of commission and the acts of omission of his soldiers.

Otto Heinrich Kranzbühler was a German naval judge who represented defendant Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz before the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials.

A war crimes trial is the trial of persons charged with criminal violation of the laws and customs of war and related principles of international law committed during armed conflict.

Joint criminal enterprise (JCE) is a legal doctrine used during war crimes tribunals to allow the prosecution of members of a group for the actions of the group. This doctrine considers each member of an organized group individually responsible for crimes committed by group within the common plan or purpose. It arose through the application of the idea of common purpose and has been applied by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to prosecute political and military leaders for mass war crimes, including genocide, committed during the Yugoslav Wars 1991–1999.

The following is a bibliography of works devoted to the Nuremberg Trials.

The Borkum Island war crimes trial involved the prosecution of ten German soldiers and five German civilians accused and found guilty of war crimes committed on the island of Borkum against seven American airmen during World War II. The airmen had been deliberately exposed to harassment and subsequently executed.

Charles Marsland (1923-2007) was a Honolulu attorney who served as the first elected Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu from 1981 to 1988. He is best known for his aggressive prosecution of the Hawaiian Mob during the mid 1980s, which took place after the murder of his son, which was allegedly connected to organized crime.

The Philippine War Crimes Commission was a commission created in late 1945 by General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers to investigate the war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the invasion, occupation, and liberation of the Philippines. The investigation by the Commission led to the extradition, prosecution, and conviction of Class A, Class B, and Class C defendants in Manila, Tokyo, and other cities in East and Southeast Asia through the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Henry Valpey Atherton, was an American lawyer, and part of the prosecution counsel at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. He was a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Denson</span> Chief Prosecutor in Nazi concentration camps trials

William Denson was an American lawyer and military prosecutor who served as Chief Prosecutor in the trials of war criminals of Nazi concentration camps.

References

1 2 3 "Edward F. Lyons, 91 was War Crimes Prosecutor". Boston Globe. No. 3. Boston, MA. 1990. p. 78. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
1 2 3 4 Shepherd, Kelsey. (1996). "Finding Aid". Edward F. Lyons Jr. Records. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. Northeastern University Libraries, Boston MA. Accessed 16 October 2014
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Long, Bill (27 February 1946). "'Death March' Nazis on Trial". The Stars and Stripes. p. 2.
1 2 Ward, H.C. (1946), Army of the United States Certificate of Service, United States Army
↑ Marsh, Marvin W. (1953), Discharge from United States Army Reserve (Personal Correspondence)
1 2 Durston, John (1945). "Jackson Reports Allies Agree Aggressive War is Criminal". New York Herald Tribune European Edition. No. 19, 414.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Boston_Globe-1] 1 2 3 "Edward F. Lyons, 91 was War Crimes Prosecutor". Boston Globe. No. 3. Boston, MA. 1990. p. 78. Retrieved 16 October 2014.

[Finding_Aid-2] 1 2 3 4 Shepherd, Kelsey. (1996). "Finding Aid". Edward F. Lyons Jr. Records. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. Northeastern University Libraries, Boston MA. Accessed 16 October 2014

[Long,_1946-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Long, Bill (27 February 1946). "'Death March' Nazis on Trial". The Stars and Stripes. p. 2.

[Army_Certificate-4] 1 2 Ward, H.C. (1946), Army of the United States Certificate of Service, United States Army

[Discharge_Papers-5] Marsh, Marvin W. (1953), Discharge from United States Army Reserve (Personal Correspondence)

[Herald_Tribune-6] 1 2 Durston, John (1945). "Jackson Reports Allies Agree Aggressive War is Criminal". New York Herald Tribune European Edition. No. 19, 414.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]