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Exhibition Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom Illustration

Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom Illustration

Only One Officer Found Guilty of My Lai Attrocities

Howard Brodie. [Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr., saluting the president of the six-officer jury after the verdict was announced in his court martial trial at Ft. Benning, Georgia], March 31, 1971. Color crayon on white paper. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (090.00.00)
LC-DIG-ppmsca-51140 © Estate of Howard Brodie
Gift of Howard Brodie
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Only One Officer Found Guilty of My Lai Attrocities

Lt. William L. Calley, Jr., flanked by George W. Latimer, his civilian lawyer and an unidentified officer, saluted the president of the six-officer jury. He had just received his sentence to a lifetime of hard labor for his role in the murder of twenty-two My Lai villagers in Vietnam on March 16, 1968: appeal at U.S. v. Calley, 46 C.M.R. 1131. Ultimately President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to house arrest at Fort Benning. Calley was released to a federal parole officer on September 10, 1975. Of the fifteen officers who were charged, only Calley was found guilty of the massacre.