Mutiny in the Presidio

The routine roll call at the Presidio stockade in San Francisco was disrupted last October. Linking arms and singing We Shall Overcome, 27 Army prisoners staged a sitdown protest. An hour later, they were hauled off to their cells, charged with mutiny -- one of a baker's dozen of crimes ranging from murder to rape punishable by death under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

At the outset of their mass trial, a seven-man court-martial board was told by the presiding law officer that it was a "nonviolent mutiny." Maximum pen alty: life in prison. To simplify defense procedures, the Army will judge the 25 (two escaped the stockade Christmas Eve) in small groups or individually.

Last week the first of the defendants to be tried, Private Nesrey D. Sood, 26, a father of three from Oakland, Calif., was found guilty. He was given 15 years at hard labor, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and an eventual dis honorable discharge. "I am shocked," said Paul Halvonik, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who defended Sood. "Fifteen years for going out and singing and raising his fingers in a 'V is absurd." Sood, a draftee who had gone AWOL last September because he heard that his wife was neglecting their children back home, was due for discharge at Fort Lewis, Wash., the week he was arrested.

Alleged Sadism. Halvonik argued that merely refusing to obey an order is not mutiny. Sood, he said, was simply trying to call attention to his legitimate grievances. The stockade at times had 140 prisoners crowded into a space allocated for 88, and rations were sometimes short. The inmates had demanded that military guards be subjected to psychiatric tests because of alleged acts of sadism. The protest took place three days after a guard killed a prisoner, Private Richard Bunch.

After reportedly telling a guard to "be sure to aim for my head," Bunch, who had been examined by an Army psychiatrist, deliberately walked away from a work detail. He was killed by a single shotgun blast that ripped his skull. That night, when the other prisoners vocally protested the shooting, Captain Robert S. Lament, 25, disciplinary officer, told them that they were in danger of committing mutiny.

Shock Effect. At the trial, Lament testified that he had read to the protesting prisoners Article 94 of the Military Code, which defines mutiny, "for the shock effect." He said that he did not read the article that prescribes the penalties for disturbing the peace because his mind was "focused on mutiny." The defense brought in an acoustical expert who said that the prisoners in the enclosed courtyard could not have heard Lament's warning carried over a loudspeaker. The charge of mutiny itself was questioned by Army Investigator Captain Richard J. Millard. In a report that was never revealed to the court, Millard wrote: "To charge mutiny, an offense which has its roots in the harsh admiralty laws of the previous centuries, for demonstrating against conditions that existed in the stockade, is, in my opinion, a miscarriage of justice."

By week's end, two more privates had been sentenced. Lawrence W. Reidel, 20, was given 14 years, and Louis S. Osczepinski, 21, got 16--presumably because he had two previous AWOL convictions. Both men had been labeled "sociopaths" by their attorneys, but after three days with Army psychiatrists, they were adjudged sane. During the trial, Osczepinski attempted suicide by slicing both his wrists with a razor blade.

Extremely severe judgments in military courts are common. It is a foregone conclusion that those who have been charged will appeal. The first step of the complicated but fairly liberal review procedure is the staff judge advocate, who can approve the sentence, reduce, or dismiss it. From there it goes to Washington. All this takes time, of course, which the accused must spend in prison, since there is no provision for bail in military law. However, despite the rigmarole of court-martial, there is little likelihood that any of the convicted "mutineers" will spend anything like 15 years in jail.

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