29 March 1971: 1st Lt William L. Calley Jr. was found guilty by a court-martial for his role in the My Lai massacre. He was the only one of the 26 officers and men charged to be convicted.

Three days after his conviction was announced, Pres. Richard Nixon ordered he be committed to house arrest. On 31 March, a military judge sentenced Calley to life in prison at hard labor to be served at Ft. Leavenworth, Kans.

On 20 August, Third Army commander Lt. Gen. Albert J. O'Connor reduced Calley's sentence to 20 years in his capacity as the convening authority.

Calley appealed his conviction to the U.S. District Court for Georgia's Middle District and the judge granted a writ of habeas corpus and ordered Calley be released on bail on 27 Feb. 1974. A three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision and ordered Calley returned to house arrest on 13 June.

Calley again appealed to the District Court, which released him on 25 Sept 1974 after again finding he had not received a fair trial. While he remained on bail during the government's appeal, Army Secretary Howard H. "Bo" Calloway reduced his sentence to 10 years. Military law allowed prisoners to be paroled after serving a third of their term, and Calley would be eligible after serving three years and four months on house arrest. The Fifth Circuit ordered him back into custody on an 8-5 vote on 10 Sept. 1975. Since he had only 10 days before being eligible for parole, the army refused to reincarcerate him.