Portrait of a Prosecutor

Captain Aubrey Daniel III, the 29-year-old Army captain who chastised the Commander in Chief, did not gloat over his courtroom "victory," a term he abhors. At a party shortly after the verdict, when the intense, tight-lipped attorney finally relaxed with a bottle of Scotch, his guitar and a group of friends, he sadly conceded: "When human lives are involved, there is never a winner."

Indeed, the 41-month-long trial was nearly as much of an ordeal for Daniel as it was for the defendant. Early in the case he occasionally betrayed his youth. "Don't be so thin-skinned," Judge Reid Kennedy snapped at him once after a string of seemingly petty objections. But by the closing weeks of the trial, he was consistently trumping Defense Attorney George Latimer, brilliantly exposing the aging lawyer's weaknesses on points of law.

Plain Stationery. His was not an approach calculated to conciliate. He disdained the legal-fraternity camaraderie that many prosecutors and defense attorneys share. Still, he won the admiration of press and peers alike for his awesome summation.

Typically, when President Nixon intervened, Daniel displayed no outrage. Nor did he consult anyone as to the course he should take or, once his decision was made, what he should say in the letter. He wrote it on plain stationery, without the Army letterhead.

Cynics have noted that Daniel is getting out of the Army in about two weeks. The Nixon letter could be a gilded passport to prestigious law firms. But sensation seeking does not seem to have been Daniel's motive. As one colleague put it, "Aubrey means it when he says he isn't looking for publicity. He was just extremely disillusioned." The letter is a reflection of the Daniel style: cool, analytical, forthright.

These are late-blooming qualities in Daniel. The only son of a South Carolina strip miner, Daniel grew up in Orange, Va. He slipped and slid through four years as a geography major at the University of Virginia. "My grades," he remarked, "were all over the place." His academic performance was so uneven that he was not accepted at the University of Virginia law school. The University of Richmond's law school took him, though, and Daniel buckled down. He became an associate editor of the law review and wound up in the top 10% of his class. After graduation, he went to work for the Richmond firm of Minor, Thompson, Savage & Smithers, but received his draft notice six months later. He quickly applied for, and received, a direct commission in the Judge Advocate General's Corps.

Ironically, he missed, due to the timing of his orders, the standard 16-week course on the Uniform Code of Military Justice before his assignment to Fort Benning. So he had to make do with a two-week briefing. That is the extent of Daniel's military-law training. "I just read the book," he chuckled, "and I never felt shortchanged."

Hawk to Dove. Though he prosecuted Calley to the limit of his ability, and was appalled by the scope of the My Lai massacre (once prowar, he is now a dove), Daniel feels no animosity toward the lieutenant. "You can't let these things become a personal matter," he said. "In the long run, it is simply a matter of whether justice is done. If that happens, our society wins."

The Army, needless to say, will be glad to see the outspoken Daniel go. He has no specific plans, but says he intends to pursue his passion: trial law.

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