Hearsay

By Stephen Anderson

Editor

At peace with unknowns

Gunfire broke the silence at Arlington National Cemetery as the 3rd Infantry sentinel passed the Tomb of the Unknowns. He didn't flinch amid his 21-pace vigil on the 63-foot pathway he would traverse in 21-second intervals.

The rifle volleys were followed soon by the mournful bugling of Taps, so we knew it was for but one of about 2,200 military burials that take place each year at Arlington.

The flag-draped coffins, on caissons drawn by matched horses, are accompanied by honor guards, family members and small regimental bands. No Bible-thumping Kansas hooligans are invited, and thus no Patriot Guard Riders are needed.

Since Private William Christensen of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry was interred May 13, 1864, during the Civil War, Arlington has become the final resting place for nearly 300,000 members of the military and their families, and other luminaries.

There is room for about 130,000 more during the next 60 years. The cemetery has expanded to 624 acres, the grave sites have been reduced from six-by-twelve feet to five-by-ten, and some restrictions have been placed on eligibility.

The first “unknowns” were buried informally in 1866, when the mingled remains of 2,111 Civil War casualties, “gathered after the war from the fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock,” were sealed in a circular pit, 20 feet wide, in what had been Robert E. Lee's rose garden.

The formal tribute to the nation's unknown soldiers was established on Armistice Day in 1921 for casualties of World War I. A 50-ton capstone of Colorado marble was placed over the crypt in 1932.

Subsequently, crypts were excavated in front of the tomb for unknowns of World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. One of the three has been vacant since 1998, when modern technology provided an identity for the sole Vietnam unknown.

Never again will a casualty of U.S. military action rest at Arlington “in honored glory ... known but to God.” But the burials continue elsewhere on the grounds.

John F. Kennedy, one of three presidents interred at Arlington (with William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson) had expressed his hope for a time when “there will be no veterans of any further wars ... because all shall have learned to live together in peace.”

As we watched the changing of the sentinel guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, another rifle volley and a distant brass rendition of “America” reminded a silent crowd that at least one more known patriot rests in peace.

In other states, reform and review

Criminal justice reform took a new turn this month in North Carolina, when the governor signed a bill that creates the first “state innocence commission” in the country.

A former prosecutor, the governor called the measure “yet another safeguard by helping ensure that the people in our prisons in fact belong there.” The eight-member commission will start reviewing claims of innocence from convicts in November.

If five or more commissioners agree that evidence of potential innocence exists, a case would be sent to a superior court panel of three judges. A conviction could be overturned by a unanimous decision of the panel.

The president of the state's Conference of District Attorneys called this “kind of a making mockery of the system,” if defendants who have pleaded guilty can proclaim innocence and possibly be freed.

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And this just in from New Jersey: A recent ethics opinion found that the appellations of “best lawyer” and “super lawyer” are manufactured titles that might mislead consumers.

Lawsuits have been filed by Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America to reverse or modify the opinion, according to the New Jersey Law Journal.