 Alabama's governor, George Wallace, visited Calley in the stockade and requested that President Richard Nixon pardon him.After the conviction, the White House received over 5,000 telegrams; the ratio was 100 to 1 in favor of leniency.In a telephone survey of the U.S. public, 79 percent disagreed with the verdict, 81 percent believed that the life sentence Calley had received was too stern, and 69 percent believed Calley had been made a scapegoat.