Justice for the Lieutenant

In a Quonset-hut courtroom in Seoul last week, an eight-man court-martial meted out punishment: two years in prison and dismissal from the service for 2nd Lieut. James D. Goff. Goff smiled in relief: he had had good reason to expect a much heavier sentence. Last December, with three Negro enlisted men, he had entered a Korean's house, presumably looking for stolen property, and had pistol-whipped to death an innocent Korean Presbyterian minister who protested.

The Army did little about the case until church groups in the U.S. kicked up a ruckus (TIME, Feb. 2). Goff was first charged with "unpremeditated murder," but because the court-martial could not decide which man had struck the fatal blow, Goff was convicted on the charge of "aggravated assault." Even with the lighter charge, he could have drawn a prison term of five years, but the court was lenient. Why did Goff get off so lightly? "That information," said a legal officer, "is in the bosom of the court."

Christian missionaries in Korea and friends of Pang Wha Il, the victim, were indignant. Said the Rev. Chun Pil Sun, of the Seoul presbytery: "The American military army obviously places different value on the lives of Koreans and Americans ... A Korean's life apparently means nothing." Added a U.S. missionary in Korea: "I am ashamed to face the Christians I know here."

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