Counsel for the G.I. Defense

Shortly before midnight last April 30th, a vicious fight broke out at a party in a hooch at Phan Rang airbase in South Viet Nam. Staff Sergeant James Bush, a hulking 225-pounder, resolved a disagreement over a Vietnamese prostitute by choking a 20-year-old draftee until he foamed at the mouth. Several soldiers pulled Bush away from the private, who ran off into the night. Within the hour, an M-14 bullet slammed through Bush's rib cage and killed him.

The draftee, Private First Class Tyrone Peterson of Birmingham, Ala., was arrested. No one had seen the murderer; Peterson's fingerprints did not appear on the weapon. But according to witnesses, he had threatened to kill the sergeant and tried to borrow a loaded carbine shortly after the fight at the party.

Was this enough to charge Peterson with premeditated murder? No, said the Army's investigating officer. But he was overruled by superiors who indicated that the death penalty would be asked. It was another example of why critics fault U.S. military justice for "command influence." Despite recent reforms, a convening authority can still order trial, appoint members of the court, prosecutor and military defense lawyer.

Right-On Lawyer. As it turned out, Peterson was no routine defendant. He knew that the Uniform Code of Military Justice guarantees a right to civilian counsel. Furthermore, his relatives got help from a new private organization: the Lawyers Military Defense Committee, which is sponsored by such legal notables as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The committee was about to open a Saigon office to provide free civilian counsel for U.S. servicemen in Viet Nam, and Peterson was a natural first client.

William Homans Jr. was sent to Viet Nam two months ago to defend Pfc. Peterson. In Boston, Homans is known as a "right-on lawyer"--he defends blacks, war protesters and poor people. But in Viet Nam, the huge, jocular attorney was too wise to come on as an overweight William Kunstler. He made sure that all the military people knew he was a World War II Navy veteran; he affected a when-in-Rome costume of field boots and green fatigues with his name sewed on the shirt pocket. And he did not advertise that he had defended Michael Ferber at the Dr. Spock trial.

Homans' defense--aided by Peterson's Army lawyer, Captain Royce Lamberth--was exactly what his client hoped for, and the L.M.D.C. expected. Respectful but never inhibited in court, Homans put the prosecution witnesses through an uncompromising interrogation. Their stories became confused, and Peterson was acquitted of all charges.

Potential Clients. The Army has promised its cooperation and has informed L.M.D.C. Director Henry Aronson, who is scheduled to arrive in Saigon this week, that the military will follow his activities "with interest." That is an understatement. A former civil rights lawyer for the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund, Aronson suggests that the L.M.D.C. may defend not only soldiers facing routine criminal charges but also those who buck military authority in exercising their constitutional rights. Among potential clients: frontline soldiers who question the legality of a superior's order.

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