William Laws Calley, Jr. (born June 8, 1943) is a former
United States Army officer found guilty of murdering 22 unarmed
South Vietnamese civilians in the
My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the
Vietnam War. After several reductions, Calley's original sentence of life in prison was turned into an order of house arrest, but after three years, President
Richard Nixon reduced his sentence with a presidential pardon.