Against the Evidence

The uproar about the court-martial of Lieutenant Calley—an uncomplicated conviction of premeditated murder on evidence which fully supported the verdict—shows the depth of the public’s interest, and also of its ignorance, in matters of military justice. The interest is fully justified: Here is a system of criminal law affecting more than three million Americans, and one which differs in many ways, some important, from civilian justice. Moreover, as a practical matter, a court-martial is the only court which could have tried such a crime as Calley’s—which, incidentally, the United States was bound by treaty to “bring before its own courts.”