Opening the Door

When U.S. District Court Judge J. Robert Elliott abruptly ended the 35-month confinement of Army Lieut. William L. Calley Jr. last week, the judge observed that he saw "no likelihood" that Calley would flee. Why should he? Under the terms of his sentence, he was comfortably confined to his $111-a-month, two-bedroom apartment at Fort Benning, Ga., where he passed the months watching television, building model airplanes, boning up on oceanography and ancient history through correspondence courses, growing vegetables and flowers in his backyard, and talking with his pet mynah bird. Calley, 30, has also enjoyed almost daily visits from his girl friend, Anne Moore.

"I am still an Army officer, and proud to be," Calley said after his release on bail by the civil court judge. He still is appealing the 20-year sentence he received from a military court for murdering 22 civilians in the 1968 My Lai massacre. "I intend to continue to pursue all legal avenues until my conviction is reversed, I am released completely and forever, and my name is cleared." Meanwhile the review of Calley's case by Army Secretary Howard H. Callaway has already begun. Callaway, or President Nixon when he reviews the case later, could reduce it, as Judge Elliott observed when he ordered Calley's release. In fact, said the judge, Calley may already have been confined longer than required by a possible reduced sentence.

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