THE LAW: Justice Denied

The Supreme Court put an end last week to a treason case that had been bungled from the beginning: the prosecution of ex-Sergeant John David Provoo, a Californian who took up Buddhism in his youth, lived in a Japanese monastery, later enlisted in the U.S. Army. Captured on Corregidor in 1942, at 25, he served the Japanese as a stool pigeon, according to his fellow prisoners, and brought about the execution of a U.S. captain. But the Army brought no charges after the war, and Provoo re-enlisted; it was 1949 before he was indicted for treason, and 1953 before he...