Biography
Otto Janson was an Oakland, California businessman prosecuted for sedition during World War I. He was overheard questioning the United States' involvement in the war in Europe and was charged with causing disloyalty and insubordination in the military and naval forces of the United States under the wartime Espionage and Sedition Acts. Arrested in Oakland on April 13, 1918 — he was held only two days before being released on bond — he was convicted at San Francisco on May 4, 1918, sentenced on May 10, and entered the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington (inmate no. 3149) on May 16, 1918. His five-year term was set to expire, with good-time credit, on January 10, 1922.
1920s remaining-entry review: The 1921 Senate Amnesty and Pardon for Political Prisoners hearing, printed page 88 (PDF page 94), explicitly records Otto Jansen as released on parole July 21, 1919. The spelling variant is matched by the Northern California prosecution, May 10, 1918 sentence date and five-year sentence. The same official row records the March 3, 1919 reduction to two years. This corrects the former January 10, 1922 expiration-date substitution. The complete table page was visually inspected.
Official 1921 hearing, page 88
The presidential-clemency table in the 1921 Senate amnesty hearings records a sentence imposed May 10, 1918: Five years at McNeil Island. Commuted March 3, 1919 to two years. A pardon, commutation, nominal expiration or parole eligibility is not itself evidence of the day of physical release; the imposed or reduced term is not a measured time served.
Amnesty and Pardon for Political Prisoners, 1921 Senate hearings, printed page 180.
