Military Justice System

Merle is an attorney and partner at the law firm of Coolidge Wall in Dayton Ohio.During the Vietnam War, Merle served as a U.S. Army Captain, Judge Advocate General's Corps, Government Appellate Division, Washington, D.C., where he briefed and argued appeals in the Presidio Mutiny case and the Lt. William L. Calley - My Lai Massacre case. Wilberding’s background as an Army lawyer would be put to use while he represented the local (Dayton) family of Maria Lauterbach, a pregnant Marine murdered in 2007 by a fellow Marine. “In both cases, the crime was so awful that the military or Army or Department of Defense thought it should serve as a lesson that it shouldn’t happen again,”