Word: martially
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...lawyers who will be defending him and the military judge who will preside at his court-martial seem to agree on one vital issue: Army Lieut. William Galley Jr., who is charged with the murder of 109 Vietnamese civilians, may be unable to get a fair trial. According to the judge, Lieut. Colonel Reid Kennedy, potential witnesses have been violating his orders against talking to the press. Powerless to enforce the ban, Kennedy called on the Attorney General of the U.S. last week to look into ways of prosecuting five news organizations* and certain individuals-though just what the charges...
...defense joined in protesting the news reports, but it also offered another argument. By holding Calley in the military beyond his discharge date, said his lawyers, the Army is keeping him in "involuntary servitude." Arguing that a court-martial does not adequately protect a defendant's rights, they made a motion to dismiss the charges. Even Calley's career-Army lawyer, Major Kenneth Raby, concurred, quoting a recent Supreme Court decision that criticizes military trials as "marked by the age-old manifest destiny of retributive justice...
...time by letters mailed on April 2, 1969, by Viet Nam Veteran Ronald Ridenhour. As Army Chief of Staff, Westmoreland ordered a full Pentagon investigation on April 23. As a result of that investigation, Laird says, he personally informed President Nixon in August that "we would have to court-martial Galley for murder-and the President told me to go right ahead." On Sept. 5, the charges were announced, but with no mention of how many killings were involved. It was not until November that journalists learned of the magnitude of the tragedy...
Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, Pakistan's President pro tempore and army commander, is a rather reluctant strongman. Last March Yahya imposed martial law and took over the presidency in the wake of nationwide rioting prompted by the autocratic rule of Ayub Khan. At the time, Yahya promised a swift return to democracy. Two weeks ago, in a broadcast to his 130 million fellow citizens, he kept his word. Promising -indeed, practically commanding-an orderly march back to civilian rule, he said: "I am not prepared to tolerate any obstruction in the restoration of democracy." Last week Yahya explained...
What if a U.S. soldier is actually ordered to commit an atrocity? According to the U.S. Manual for Courts-Martial, he is justified in not following an order if "a man of ordinary sense and understanding would know it to be illegal." The trouble is that such echoes of Nürnberg are drowned out by every drill sergeant's most basic lesson-instant obedience. Under military law, in fact, a man who refuses to follow an order is presumed guilty of this offense until he proves that the order was illegal at his subsequent court-martial. Disobedience...