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Show v i ' " ' " ""'. I Latimer: 'Calley outcry fits jury system' George W. Latimer, civilian defense council for Lt. William Calley, is interviewed by Chronicle senior editor, Peter Gillins. Mr. Latimer, a University graduate, is a former Utah Supreme Court justice and also served as a judge of the Court of Military Appeals. Photos by David Crompton BY PETER GILLINS k . Senior Editor v v George W. Latimer, civilian defense council for Lt. William Calley, who was convicted last week of murdering 22 civili-ans civili-ans at the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai, v, thinks the public outcry over Cally's first ' I degree murder conviction is compatible t with the jury system. ,: "A jury is subject to the same criticism i-; as any other government body would be," 1,1 j he said. "And you have to remember that y this was a military jury which had to take r I military discipline into account." 0i ; "This was not the right kind of case to ; try before a court martial," he added. jir.l "The command that trains the boys, puts Ki;: them into the field and then makes the Jti ; baa decisions, is the same one that brings 1 the charges against them and then tries the case" Mr. Latimer, who lives and practices law in Salt Lake City, graduated from the University ROTC program. He attended -" the University Law School and is a former Utah Supreme Court justice. He also served as a judge of the Court of Military Appeals. In an interview with the Chronicle Tuesday, Mr. Latimer said he thought it was quite proper for President Nixon to intervene in the Calley Case. "As commander-in-chief he has an interest in matters that involve order and discipline in the military," he said, and added he couldn't say if the President would grant clemency, but hoped Presidential action would be favorable to Calley. Mr. Latimer said he thought the Calley decision would have an adverse effect on military discipline. "Figuring out the legality of an order is tough to do," he said. "It is even harder under the circumstances of war." He explained the army has changed some of its training practices as a result of the Calley case. The army no longer uses the words "search and destroy," which were often misunderstood, he said, and soldiers have the Geneva accords explained to them in greater detail. "During the trial these boys were asked if they had a knowledge of the Geneva Accords," said Mr. Latimer. "They said no. That has now been put into the teaching." Mr. Latimer said he agreed with Gov. Calvin Rampton's statement that Lt. Calley Cal-ley should have been charged with a lesser crime such as involuntary manslaughter, if he was going to be charged. But he said, "I am not convinced that he should have been charged at all, and I don't think Capt. Medina or anybody else should be tried." "You are in a different climate when you are in war," he added. "The thing foremost in a man's mind in war is to kill. He is taught to do it; he is ordered to do it, and he is sent to do it. "War is a situation that causes frenzy. Only a well-trained man can handle a change into that situation. These boys were on their first mission and didn't reason as well as seasoned troops," he said. "These boys weren't killers. Their action ac-tion was the result of environment and training. My Lai was only a couple of hours out of their lives. They had no aggressive showing up to that time or after." Mr. Latimer said the press was "brutal to Calley" to start with. "The 'Life' pictures horrified everybody," every-body," he said, "and the tiling was described de-scribed as a massacre." "My objection," he added, "was that Calley became Mr. My Lai. There was no news of anyone besides Calley." He also said career army men are resentful resent-ful because they are the ones being prosecuted prose-cuted while other men who were there are out of the service, free from prosecution and free to sell their stories. According to . Mr. Latimer the defense knew of one participant in the My Lai incident now out of the service who sold his story to the press for over $60,000. Mr. Latimer said Lt. Calley is a pleasant appearing young man with a fine personality personal-ity and a sense of humor. "When I first met him I was surprised that anyone would have suspected him of murder," he said. "If I told him to jump out of the window because it was necessary neces-sary for the good of the country, he would, believing that I was honorable and had the good sense to know that it was the right thing to do." Mr. Latimer stated that the trial convinced con-vinced him the Vietnam War is the wrong kind of war. "The sooner we get out, with dignity, the better off we will be," he said. "Being from a military background I've always thought that if we go into a war, we should go in with the idea of winning and get it over with. But," he added, "staying over there doesn't seem to be the right solution." |