George W. Latimer

George Webster Latimer (November 28, 1900 – May 3, 1990) was a Utah lawyer best known for representing Lt. William Calley Jr. in his court martial for the My Lai incident. Latimer was also a justice of the Utah Supreme Court from 1946 to 1951 and one of the three original members of the U.S. Court of Military Appeals from 1951 to 1961.

Early life Latimer was born in Draper, Utah, to John and Petria Jensen Latimer and attended Salt Lake Public Schools. In 1924, he graduated from the University of Utah College of Law, where he was a member of Delta Theta Phi law fraternity. As an undergraduate at the University of Utah he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity.

Latimer practiced law in Salt Lake City from 1924 to 1940. He joined the Utah National Guard in 1925. and was sworn in for a 10-year term.

Law firm Latimer became a partner in the Salt Lake City firm of Parsons, Behle, and Latimer in 1961. He was hired by Calley after phoning him to express his support for Calley's predicament. Latimer was criticised for the poor defence case he put forwards, including mispronouncing names and getting facts wrong (in one case, needing to be corrected by a juror). Latimer worked on the case until 1974, with appeals in the military and civilian courts. Calley was initially sentenced to life imprisonment, but the sentence was reduced on several occasions. A U.S. district judge eventually found that Calley’s military trial was conducted in a way that violated his constitutional rights. He was a member of the Kiwanis and a director for the Salvation Army.