Editing William Calley (section)

== Career ==
Calley enlisted in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] on July 26, 1966,<ref name="Stars&Stripes" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Calley, William |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/calley-william |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180409/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/calley-william |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |access-date=December 6, 2023 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> and underwent eight weeks of basic combat training at [[Fort Bliss]], Texas,<ref name="EncycloVietWar149">{{Cite book|last=Tucker|first=Spencer|title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qh5lffww-KsC&q=William+L.+Calley+at+Ft.+Bliss&pg=PA149|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|year=2011|page=149|volume=1|isbn=978-1-85109-960-3|access-date=December 23, 2011}}</ref> followed by eight weeks of advanced individual training as a company clerk at [[Fort Lewis (Washington)|Fort Lewis]], Washington. Having scored high enough on his [[Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery|Armed Forces Qualification tests]], he applied for and was accepted into [[Officer Candidate School (United States Army)|Officer Candidate School]] (OCS).<ref name="Stars&Stripes" />

He then began 26 weeks of junior officer training at [[Fort Benning]] in mid-March 1967. Upon graduating from OCS Class No. 51 on September 7, 1967,<ref name="Stars&Stripes" /> he was commissioned a [[Second lieutenant#United States|second lieutenant]] in the [[infantry]]. He was assigned to 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st [[Battalion]], [[20th Infantry Regiment (United States)|20th Infantry Regiment]], [[11th Infantry Brigade (United States)|11th Infantry Brigade]], [[23rd Infantry Division (United States)|23rd Infantry Division "The Americal Division"]],<ref name="crdl" /> and began training at [[Schofield Barracks]], Hawaii, in preparation for deployment to [[South Vietnam]].

Calley's officer evaluations described his performance as average.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} Later, as the My Lai investigation progressed, a more negative picture emerged. Men in his platoon reported to Army investigators that Calley lacked common sense and could not read a map or use a compass properly.<ref>Wilson, William. [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1990/1/1990_1_44.shtml "I Had Prayed to God that this Thing Was Fiction..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070625192221/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1990/1/1990_1_44.shtml|date=June 25, 2007}}, ''[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]]'', vol. 41 #1, February 1990.</ref>

In May or June 1969 near [[Chu Lai Base Area]], Calley and two other [[23rd Infantry Division (United States)|Americal Division]] lieutenants were involved in a physical confrontation with five enlisted members of the [[United States Marine Corps]]. The fight ended after one of the Army officers pulled his pistol and fired a round into the air; the two other officers were briefly hospitalized, while Calley was "merely beaten up." The Marines pleaded guilty at special courts-martial, where they said they had not known that they were fighting officers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Solis|first=Gary|title=Marines And Military Law In Vietnam: Trial By Fire|publisher=History and Museums Division, United States Marine Corps|year=1989|isbn=9781494297602|url=https://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/Marines%20and%20Military%20Law%20in%20Vietnam_Trial%20by%20Fire%20%20PCN%2019000310600_1.PDF|pages=155–56|access-date=November 15, 2018|archive-date=January 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125120136/http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/Marines%20and%20Military%20Law%20in%20Vietnam_Trial%20by%20Fire%20%20PCN%2019000310600_1.pdf|url-status=live}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

=== My Lai massacre ===
{{Main|My Lai massacre}}
On March 16, 1968, Calley led around 100 soldiers of Charlie company into the village of My Lai. Although they faced no resistance, they entered the village shooting. They murdered hundreds of civilians consisting mostly of South Vietnamese elderly men, women, children, and infants using automatic weapons, grenades and bayonets. Infants and children were killed with bayonets, and females were raped and shot.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |date=July 30, 2024 |title=William Calley, Convicted of Mass Murder in My Lai Massacre, Dies at 80 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/us/william-calley-dead.html |access-date=July 30, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The official American estimate of those murdered was 347, but a Vietnamese memorial at the site lists 504 names, with ages ranging from 1 to 82.<ref name=":1" /> In the My Lai museum in Vietnam, a marble plaque lists the names and ages of the victims. 504 people from 247 families were killed. Of these, 24 families lost everyone – three generations, no survivors. Included in the 504 were 60 elderly men, and 282 women (17 of whom were pregnant). A total of 173 children were killed; 53 were infants.<ref name="SmithsonianMag">{{cite web |last=Raviv |first=Shaun |date=January 2018 |title=The Ghosts of My Lai |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ghosts-my-lai-180967497/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111092914/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ghosts-my-lai-180967497/ |archive-date=January 11, 2021 |access-date=July 30, 2024 |website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

=== Murder trial ===
[[File:My Lai massacre.jpg|thumb|Photo taken by the Army photographer [[Ronald L. Haeberle]] on March 16, 1968, during the My Lai massacre, showing mostly women and children dead on a road]]

The events in My Lai were initially covered up by the U.S. Army.<ref name="Linder, Douglas 2000">Linder, Douglas. "The My Lai Massacre Trial", ''Jurist''. March 2000.</ref> In April 1969, nearly 13 months after the massacre, [[Ronald Ridenhour|Ron Ridenhour]], a GI who had been with the 11th Brigade, wrote letters to the President, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and 30 members of Congress. In these letters, Ridenhour described some of the atrocities committed by the soldiers at My Lai that he had been told about.<ref name="www.trialsinternation.org">{{Cite news|title=William Calley|url=https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/william-calley/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707031627/https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/william-calley/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 7, 2016|date=May 8, 2016|publisher=Trial International}}</ref>

Due to Article 4 of the [[Fourth Geneva Convention]] excluding allied civilians from the status of [[protected persons]] in an international armed conflict, Calley and his fellow soldiers could not be legally tried as [[war crime|war criminals]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Bond |first=James E. |title=Protection of Non-combatants in Guerrilla Wars |url=https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1705&context=faculty#page=3 |url-status=live |journal=[[William & Mary Law School]] |volume=12 |issue=787 |pages=788–789 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230818224718/https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1705&context=faculty#page=3 |archive-date=August 18, 2023 |access-date=September 15, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Solis |first=Gary D. |author-link=Gary D. Solis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mJErDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA252 |title=The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War |date=April 18, 2016 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9-7811-0713-5604 |page=252-253 |access-date=September 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003000929/https://books.google.com/books?id=mJErDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA252 |archive-date=October 3, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="GjgD">{{cite book|title=The Army Lawyer|page=13|publisher=Judge Advocate General's School}}</ref> Calley was instead charged on September 5, 1969, with six specifications of [[Murder#Degrees of murder|premeditated murder]] under Article 118 of the [[Uniform Code of Military Justice]] (UCMJ)<ref name="GjgD"/> for the deaths of 109 South Vietnamese civilians near the village of Son My, at a [[hamlet (place)|hamlet]] called My Lai. On November 12, 1969, investigative reporters [[Seymour Hersh]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901651,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214144136/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901651,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 14, 2008|title=The Press: Miscue on the Massacre|publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=December 5, 1969|access-date=August 30, 2013}}</ref> and [[Wayne Greenhaw]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Oliver|first=Kendick|title=The My Lai massacre in American history and memory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1wisoI-wP5MC&pg=PA44|year=2006|publisher=Manchester UP|isbn=978-0-7190-6891-1|pages=43–44}}</ref> broke the story and revealed that Calley had been charged with murdering 109 South Vietnamese.<ref>Kendrick, Oliver, "Coming to Terms with the Past: My Lai", ''History Today'', 00182753, February 2006, Vol. 56, Issue 2.</ref>

Calley's trial started on November 17, 1970. It was the military prosecution's contention that Calley, in defiance of the rules of engagement, ordered his men to deliberately murder unarmed Vietnamese civilians, even though his men were not under enemy fire at all. Testimony revealed that Calley had ordered the men of 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry of the 23rd Infantry Division to kill everyone in the village.<ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Levie |editor-first=H. S. |date=1979 |title=United States, United States v. William L. Calley, Jr. |url=https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/united-states-united-states-v-william-l-calley-jr |archive-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708142020/https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/united-states-united-states-v-william-l-calley-jr |url-status=live |work=International Law Studies, Documents on Prisoners of War |location=Newport, R.I. |publisher=Naval War College |volume=60 |id=Document No. 171 |pages=804–11 |access-date=July 11, 2019}}</ref>

In presenting the case, the two military prosecutors, Aubrey M. Daniel III and John Partin, were hamstrung by the reluctance of many soldiers to testify against Calley. Some soldiers refused to answer questions on the witness stand by citing the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]] right against self-incrimination.<ref name=":0" />

One holdout, Private First Class Paul David Meadlo, having been granted immunity,<ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=January 5, 1971 |title=Meadlo Given Immunity in Calley Trial |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/05/archives/meadlo-given-immunity-in-calley-trial.html |access-date=July 1, 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> was ordered by Judge Reid W. Kennedy to testify or face contempt of court charges.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/11/archives/the-calley-case-reexamined-the-calley-case-reexamined.html|title=The Calley Case Re-Examined|last=Lesher|first=Stephan|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 11, 1971|access-date=July 11, 2019}}</ref> Meadlo thus took the stand and recounted that as he stood guard over some 30 villagers whom he, along with Private Dennis Conti, had gathered at a defoliated area at the hamlet's southern tip, he was approached by Calley and told, regarding the civilians, "You know what to do with 'em."<ref name=":0" /> Meadlo took that as orders to only keep watch over them. Calley, however, returned 10 minutes later and became enraged by the fact that the villagers were still alive. After telling Meadlo that he had wanted them dead, Calley backed up about 20 feet, opened fire on them himself and ordered Meadlo to join in, which he did. Meadlo then proceeded to round up more villagers to be massacred.<ref name=":0" />

Conti's testimony corroborated that given by Meadlo, and laid the blame on Calley not only for the initiation of the massacre but also for the participation in it by his subordinates.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/05/archives/exgi-says-calley-killed-nonresisters-exgi-asserts-calley-killed.html|title=Ex-G.I. Says Calley Killed Nonresisters|last=Bigart|first=Homer|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 5, 1970|access-date=July 11, 2019}}</ref> Another witness, Leonard Gonzalez, told of finding seven women, all naked, all dead, killed by several  [[M79 grenade launcher|M-79]] grenade launcher rounds.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6rbyJajMowC&q=Leonard+Gonzalez+my+lai&pg=PA149|title=When Soldiers Quit: Studies in Military Disintegration|isbn=9780275952235|last1=Watson|first1=Bruce|year=1997|publisher=Greenwood Publishing }}</ref>

Calley's original defense, that the death of the villagers was the result of an accidental [[airstrike]], was overcome by prosecution witnesses. In his new defense, Calley claimed he was following the orders of his immediate superior, [[Captain (United States O-3)|Captain]] [[Ernest Medina]]. Whether this order was actually given is disputed; Medina was acquitted of all charges relating to the incident at a separate trial in August 1971.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, 1945–2010|last1=Olson |first1=James Stuart|last2=Roberts |first2=Randy|isbn=9781444350500|edition= Sixth |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Hoboken, NJ |oclc=859155073|date = 2013}}</ref>

Taking the witness stand, Calley, under the direct examination by his civilian defense lawyer [[George W. Latimer]], claimed that on the previous day, his commanding officer, Captain Medina, made it clear that his unit was to move into the village and that everyone was to be shot, saying that they all were [[Viet Cong]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/18/archives/defense-says-calley-regarded-victims-as-an-enemy.html|title=Defense Says Calley Regarded Victims as an Enemy|last=Bigart|first=Homer|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 18, 1971|access-date=July 11, 2019|archive-date=July 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712020746/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/18/archives/defense-says-calley-regarded-victims-as-an-enemy.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article29059669.html|title=William Calley apologizes for My Lai massacre|last=McMichael|first=Dick|date=August 21, 2009|access-date=July 11, 2019|archive-date=July 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712020748/https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article29059669.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Medina publicly denied that he had ever given such orders and stated that he had meant enemy soldiers, while Calley assumed that his order to "kill the enemy" meant to kill everyone. On direct examination during his court martial, Calley stated:

{{Quote | style=font-size:100% |Well, I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job on that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women, and children. They were all classified the same, and that was the classification that we dealt with, just as enemy soldiers&nbsp;... I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the orders that I was given, and I do not feel wrong in doing so, sir.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tjsl.edu/slomansonb/calley.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527182000/http://www.tjsl.edu/slomansonb/calley.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 27, 2010|title=United States v. Calley, U.S. Court of Military Appeals (1973), 22 USCMA 534, 48 CMR 19|access-date=March 16, 2021}}</ref>}}

Calley expressed no remorse.<ref name=":1"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Truscott IV |first1=Lucian K. |title=The convictions of Lt. Calley, dead at 80 |url=https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/the-convictions-of-lt-calley-dead |website=Lucian Truscott Newsletter |publisher=Substack |access-date=August 1, 2024 |date=July 31, 2024 |archive-date=August 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240801015159/https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/the-convictions-of-lt-calley-dead |url-status=live }}</ref>

Latimer also used Calley's low intelligence and poor performance in training as a defense, arguing that Calley was incompetent, should not have been made an infantry officer, and had been commissioned only because of manpower shortages.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gregory |first=Hamilton |author-link=Hamilton Gregory |date=2015 |title=McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War |url=https://www.amazon.com/McNamaras-Folly-Low-IQ-Troops-Vietnam-ebook/dp/B0108H60MG |publisher=Infinity Publishing |isbn=978-1495805486 |access-date=March 18, 2024 |archive-date=March 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240306031145/https://www.amazon.com/McNamaras-Folly-Low-IQ-Troops-Vietnam-ebook/dp/B0108H60MG |url-status=live }}</ref>

The prosecution called over 100 witnesses to testify against Calley during the trial. After President Nixon intervened in the trial, the assistant prosecutor, Captain Partin, wrote a letter to the White House saying that the presidential intervention had "degraded" and "defiled" the military justice system.<ref name="Raviv">{{cite news |last=Raviv |first=Shaun |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ghosts-my-lai-180967497/ |title=The Ghosts of My Lai |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |date=January 1, 2018 |accessdate=March 10, 2021 |archive-date=August 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240802155606/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ghosts-my-lai-180967497/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

After deliberating for 79 hours, the six-officer jury (five of whom had served in Vietnam) convicted him on March 29, 1971, of the premeditated murder of 22 South Vietnamese civilians. On March 31, 1971, Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor at [[Fort Leavenworth]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/|title=News, Photos, Audio &#124; Archives - UPI.com|website=UPI|access-date=August 2, 2024|archive-date=July 22, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722092254/http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1971/Foreign-Policy:-Red-China-and-Russia/12295509436546-4/|url-status=live}}</ref> which includes the [[United States Disciplinary Barracks]], the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]]'s only [[Incarceration in the United States#Security levels|maximum security prison]]. Calley was the only one convicted of the 26 officers and soldiers initially charged for their part in the My Lai massacre or the subsequent cover-up.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shapira |first1=Ian |date=March 16, 2018 |title='It was insanity': At My Lai, U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Vietnamese women and kids |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/16/it-was-insanity-at-my-lai-u-s-soldiers-slaughtered-hundreds-of-vietnamese-women-and-kids/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316135021/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/16/it-was-insanity-at-my-lai-u-s-soldiers-slaughtered-hundreds-of-vietnamese-women-and-kids/ |archive-date=March 16, 2018 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> Many observers saw My Lai as a direct result of the military's attrition strategy with its emphasis on [[body count]]s and [[Loss exchange ratio|kill ratios]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Turse |first1=Nick |title=A My Lai a Month |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/my-lai-month/ |work=The Nation |date=November 13, 2008 |access-date=June 17, 2020 |archive-date=June 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618075234/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/my-lai-month/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many in the United States were outraged by what they perceived to be an overly harsh sentence for Calley. [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]'s Governor, [[Jimmy Carter]], future President of the United States, instituted American Fighting Man's Day, and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on.<ref name="1970s 84">{{Cite book|title=How We Got Here: The 1970s|last=Frum|first=David|author-link=David Frum|year=2000|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=0-465-04195-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/84 84–85]|url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/84}}</ref> [[Indiana]]'s Governor [[Edgar Whitcomb]] asked that all state flags be flown at half-staff for Calley, and the governors of Utah and Mississippi also publicly disagreed with the verdict.<ref name="1970s 84" /> The legislatures of [[Arkansas]], [[Kansas]], [[Texas]], [[New Jersey]], and [[South Carolina]] requested clemency for Calley.<ref name="1970s 84" /> Alabama's governor, [[George Wallace]], visited Calley in the stockade and requested that President [[Richard Nixon]] pardon him. After the conviction, the [[White House]] received over 5,000 telegrams; the ratio was 100 to 1 in favor of leniency.<ref name="Cookman, Claude 2007, p. 154-162">Cookman, Claude, ''Journal of American History'' (June 2007), Vol. 94, Issue 1, pp. 154–62</ref> In a telephone survey of the U.S. public, 79 percent disagreed with the verdict, 81 percent believed that the life sentence Calley had received was too stern, and 69 percent believed Calley had been made a [[Scapegoating|scapegoat]].<ref name="Cookman, Claude 2007, p. 154-162" />

Nixon received so many telegrams  from Americans requesting clemency or a pardon for William Calley that he remarked to Henry Kissinger, "Most people don't give a shit whether he killed them or not."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nixon's Leniency After My Lai Hurt Veterans. Trump's May, Too. |url=https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/12/nixons-leniency-after-my-lai-hurt-veterans-trumps-will-too/161905/ |access-date=March 17, 2023 |website=Defense One |date=December 15, 2019 |language=en |archive-date=March 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317021107/https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/12/nixons-leniency-after-my-lai-hurt-veterans-trumps-will-too/161905/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a recollection on the Vietnam War, [[South Korea in the Vietnam War|South Korea's Vietnam Expeditionary Forces]] commander [[Chae Myung-shin]] stated that "Calley tried to get revenge for the deaths of his troops. In a war, this is natural."<ref name=nw20000410>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2000/04/09/the-cold-warrior.html|title=The Cold Warrior|magazine=Newsweek|date=April 10, 2000|access-date=February 23, 2018|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304214746/http://www.newsweek.com/2000/04/09/the-cold-warrior.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Conversely, U.S. Army Colonel [[Harry G. Summers Jr.]] declared that Calley and Medina should have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, with their remains placed "at the gates of Fort Benning, at the Infantry School, as a reminder to those who pass under it of what an infantry officer ought to be."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/facingmylaimovin00ande/page/126 |title=Facing My Lai: Moving Beyond the Massacre |publisher=University Press of Kansas |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7006-0864-5 |editor=Anderson |editor-first=David L. |location=Lawrence, Kansas |page=[https://archive.org/details/facingmylaimovin00ande/page/126 126]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Howard |date=2017 |title=My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FybADgAAQBAJ&pg=PA351 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=351 |isbn=978-0-1953-9360-6}}</ref>

===Appeals===
Three days after Calley's conviction, Nixon ordered Calley removed from prison and placed under house arrest at Fort Benning.<ref>{{cite news|title=Executive Branch|work=CQ Weekly Report|date=April 9, 1971|page=830}}</ref> On August 20, 1971, Lt. Gen. [[Albert O. Connor]], Commanding General of Third Army,<ref name="Charlton">{{cite news |last=Charlton |first=Linda |date=April 17, 1974 |title=Calley Sentence Is Cut To 10 Years By Head of Army |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/17/archives/calley-sentence-is-cut-to-10-years-by-head-of-army-secretary-cites.html |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The New York Times |pages=1, 7}}</ref> in his capacity as the [[Convening authority (court-martial)|convening authority]], reduced Calley's sentence to 20 years in prison.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bigart |first=Homer |date=August 21, 1971 |title=Calley Sentence Is Cut to 20 Years From Life Term |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/21/archives/calley-sentence-is-cut-to-20-years-from-life-term-decision-by-3d.html |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The New York Times |pages=1, 9}}</ref> As required by law, his conviction and sentence were reviewed and sustained by the [[United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals|United States Army Court of Military Review]], and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces|United States Court of Military Appeals]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rich|first=Randi B.|title=Federal Court Scope of Review Over Military Habeas Corpus Cases|journal=Memphis State University Law Review|date=Fall 1975|page=83|postscript=none}}; {{cite news|title=Military Appeals Court Upholds Conviction of Calley|work=The New York Times|date=December 22, 1973|page=50}}</ref>

Calley appealed his conviction to the [[United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia]]. On February 27, 1974, Judge [[J. Robert Elliott]] granted a [[habeas corpus|writ of ''habeas corpus'']] and set Calley free on bail. The court held that Calley had been improperly convicted due to extensive pre-trial publicity, the military court's refusal to permit certain defense witnesses, the refusal of the [[United States House of Representatives]] to release testimony about the My Lai massacre taken in executive session, and inadequate notice of charges.<ref>{{cite news |last=King |first=Wayne |date=February 28, 1974 |title=Calley Free on $1,000 Bond By Order of Civilian Judge |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/28/archives/calley-free-on-1000-bond-by-order-of-civilian-judge-calley-set-free.html |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The New York Times |pages=1, 17}}</ref> As the Army appealed Judge Elliott's decision, [[United States Secretary of the Army|Secretary of the Army]] [[Bo Callaway|Howard H. Callaway]] reviewed Calley's conviction and sentence as required by law. After reviewing the conclusions of the court-martial, Court of Military Review, and Court of Military Appeals, Callaway reduced Calley's sentence to just 10 years. Under military regulations, a prisoner is eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence. This made Calley eligible for parole after serving three years and four months.<ref name=Charlton />

A three-judge panel of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] reversed the district court's ruling and returned Calley to custody on June 13, 1974.<ref>{{cite news |date=June 14, 1974 |title=Calley's Freedom On Bail Is Ended By Appeals Court |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/14/archives/calleys-freedom-on-bail-is-ended-by-appeals-court.html |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The New York Times |page=7}}</ref> Calley once more appealed his conviction to Judge Elliott. He asked the Circuit Justice of the Fifth Circuit, [[Lewis F. Powell Jr.]], to set him free on bail while his appeal was pending, but Justice Powell denied the request.<ref>{{cite news|title=Powell Denies Calley Bid To Be Free During Appeal|work=The New York Times|date=August 20, 1974|page=41}}</ref>

The district court once more found the pre-trial publicity, the denial of defense witnesses, and improperly drawn charges had denied Calley a fair trial, and ordered him released on September 25, 1974.<ref>{{cite news |last=King |first=Wayne |date=September 26, 1974 |title=Court Orders Calley Freed But the Army Will Appeal |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/26/archives/court-orders-calley-freed-but-the-army-will-appeal.html |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The New York Times |pages=1, 17}}</ref> Calley was released on bail while the government appealed the ruling. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the Army's latest appeal ''[[en banc]]''. The full court ruled 8-to-5 to overturn the district court, and ordered Calley's conviction and sentence reinstated on September 10, 1975.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 11, 1975 |title=Appeals Court Reinstates Calley Court-Martial Conviction in My Lai Killings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/11/archives/appeals-court-reinstates-calley-courtmartial-conviction-in-my-lai.html |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The New York Times |page=26}}</ref> Because Calley had less than 10 days to serve before his possible parole, and because Army Secretary Callaway had expressed his intention to parole Calley as soon as possible, the Army refused to incarcerate Calley for the remaining 10 days of his sentence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Army Says Calley Will Be On Parole|work=The New York Times|date=September 12, 1975|page=13}}</ref>

Calley appealed the Fifth Circuit's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it declined to hear his case on April 5, 1976.<ref>{{cite news |last=Oelsner |first=Lesley |date=April 6, 1976 |title=High Court Denies Appeal By Calley |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/06/archives/high-court-denies-appeal-by-calley.html |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The New York Times |pages=1, 25}}</ref>