Page 667 'A Peoples History of the USA' -Howard Zinn (graf pic)

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In 1998, 7000 people from all over the country traveled to Fort Benning, GA, to protest the existence of the School of the Americas, whose graduates, trained by the United States, had participated in atrocities in various Latin American countries. The carried 8 caskets representing the 6 priests, a cook, and a young girl been assassinated by military men invading their home. Ironically, the GA federal judge who sentenced them to prison terms, Robert J Elliot, was the same judge who had pardoned Lieutenant William Calley, found guilty of the My lai massacre of villagers in Vietnam. -page 667



J. Robert Elliott (1910–2006) was an American politician and a federal judge.
Elliot was born to a Methodist minister on 1 January 1910 in Gainesville, Georgia. After he graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1930, he taught school to earn money for his law degree, which he received from Emory Law School in 1934. In 1936, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, where he served four terms. He joined the United States Navy during World War II, serving in the Pacific. Later he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1948 and 1952.
He was appointed as federal judge by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. He served on the bench for 38 years.
In his first year on the bench, Elliott issued an order halting a civil rights demonstration led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in Albany, Georgia.



Just thought this was interesting, how do such things happen ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Elliott