SEATTLE - The U.S. Army has overturned the convictions of 28 World War II soldiers who were court-martialed in 1944 after a riot and lynching at Seattle's Fort Lawton.

The decision was announced Friday.  It says the segregated Army of the time, was "fundamentally unfair" to the black soldiers, who were denied access to their lawyers and to critical investigative records.

The decision by the Army's highest administrative review board also grants the soldiers honorable discharges, back pay and benefits.

Only two of the 28 soldiers are still alive.

The military trial came after a riot August 14, 1944, at Fort Lawton, most of which is now Discovery Park.  An Italian private was lynched and hanged from a cable.

The Army charged that a mob of African-American soldiers was responsible.

That never did compute, says Jack Hamann, author of the book "On American Soil."

"For the only time in American history, then and now, Black soldiers were accused of lynching of all things?" said Hamann.

Hamann and others trace the reversible court martial error to the young ambitious Army prosecutor Leon Jaworski. Hamann says Jaworski withheld crucial evidence to aid in a rush to judgment.

"The behavior of Leon Jaworski and of the Army prosecution was so bad that we now can say with clarity that the trial is completely overturned. And that's extraordinary," said Hamann.

The Army agreed to review the case at the request of Washington Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott and California Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter.