Defence restless in Calley trial

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32560, 20 March 1971, Page 18

Defence restless in Calley trial

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) FORT BENNING (Georgia), March 19. The case against Lieutenant William Galley went into its third day of painstaking and time-consuming analysis today, and the defence began to get restless.

The defence attorney (Mr G. Latimer) said he thought the jurors were acting too much like investigators, with some unreasonable requests for pictures and rereading of evidence for a second time and were taking too much time.

The Judge (Colonel R. Kennedy) said they were to be highly commended for taking their time and being careful The six-officer jury was unaware of this exchange between counsel and the Judge. They ploughed ahead into the fifty-second court day, and planned to have more testimony reading again. The prosecution has asked them to convict Calley, who led a platoon in the My Lai incident, of premeditated murder. That verdict would bring the death penalty ot life imprisonment. However, the jury could reduce the charges to manslaughter. Colour slides At the jury’s request for more pictures of the scene, it was shown for the first time 20 colour slides of the village, including the trail where at least 30 people were killed. Then last night it requested the reading again of the testimony of six witnesses who had said they observed bodies of men, women and children on the trail. One had said he witnessed an American soldier shooting them down.

One of the jurors in the case, Major H. G. Brown, who became ill last night and was taken to a hospital, was able to return to the hearing today and told his fellow officers he felt well. He had suffered acute stomach pains. In Washington, meanwhile, General W. C. Westmoreland ' has recommended that Major-

General S. W. Koster and the general who was his assistant in command of the United States Army division involved in the My Lai massacre be demoted and reprimanded, Pentagon sources said. General Koster and Briga-dier-General G. H. Young, jun., were told in a letter from the Army’s general counsel that General Westmoreland, the Chief of Staff,

recommended General Koster be reduced in rank to briga-dier-general and General Young to colonel. Final decision for this administrative action, will be made by the Secretary of the Army (Mr S. R. Resor) after the two generals are given a chance to reply to the charges.