Relford v. Commandant, US Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth

401 U.S. 355, 91 S. Ct. 649, 28 L. Ed. 2d 102, 1971 U.S. LEXIS 80
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedFebruary 24, 1971
Docket98
StatusPublished
Cited by308 cases

This text of 401 U.S. 355 (Relford v. Commandant, US Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Relford v. Commandant, US Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, 401 U.S. 355, 91 S. Ct. 649, 28 L. Ed. 2d 102, 1971 U.S. LEXIS 80 (1971).

Opinion

401 U.S. 355 (1971)

RELFORD
v.
COMMANDANT, U. S. DISCIPLINARY BARRACKS, FT. LEAVENWORTH.

No. 98.

Supreme Court of United States.

Argued December 15-16, 1970.
Decided February 24, 1971.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT.

*356 Judson W. Detrick, by appointment of the Court, 397 U. S. 1020, argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.

Solicitor General Griswold argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Assistant Attorney General Wilson, Deputy Solicitor General Springer, Beatrice Rosenberg, and Roger A. Pauley.

MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.

In O'Callahan v. Parker, 395 U. S. 258, decided June 2, 1969, by a five-to-three vote, the Court held that a court-martial may not try a member of our armed forces charged with attempted rape of a civilian, with housebreaking, and with assault with intent to rape, when the alleged offenses were committed off-post on American territory, when the soldier was on leave, and when the charges could have been prosecuted in a civilian court. What is necessary for a court-martial, the Court said, is that the crime be "service connected." 395 U. S., at 272.

O'Callahan's military trial, of course, was without those constitutional guarantees, including trial by jury, to which he would have been entitled had he been prosecuted in a federal civilian court in the then Territory of Hawaii where the alleged crimes were committed.

O'Callahan already has occasioned a substantial amount of scholarly comment.[1] Much of it characterizes the decision as a significant one because it is said to depart from long-established, or at least long-accepted, *357 concepts. Some of the literature is generally approving.[2] Some of it is generally critical.[3] Some of it, as did the O'Callahan dissent, 395 U. S., at 284, forecasts a period of confusion for both the civil and the military courts.[4] Not surprisingly, much of the literature is concerned with the issue of O'Callahan's retrospectivity. Some writers assert that the holding must be applied retroactively.[5] Others predict that it will not be so applied.[6] Naturally enough, O'Callahan has had its references *358 in the federal courts of appeals[7] and in a significant number of cases in the United States Court of Military Appeals.[8]

*359 In the present federal habeas corpus case, instituted several years after the applicant's conviction by court-martial, certiorari was granted "limited to retroactivity *360 and scope of O'Callahan v. Parker . . . ." 397 U. S. 934 (1970). We thus do not reconsider O'Callahan. Our task here concerns only its application.

I

Isiah Relford, in 1961, was a corporal on active duty in the United States Army. He was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

On September 4, 1961, the visiting 14-year-old sister of another serviceman, who was on leave from his Army station at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and who came to Fort Dix when his wife delivered a child at the base hospital, was abducted at the point of a knife from an automobile in the hospital's parking lot as she waited for her brother. The girl was raped by her abductor.

A few weeks later, on October 21, the wife of an Air Force man stationed at McGuire Air Force Base, adjacent to Fort Dix, was driving from her home on the base to the post exchange concession, also on the base, where she worked as a waitress. As the woman slowed her automobile for a stop sign, a man gained entry to the car from the passenger side and, with a knife at her throat, commanded the woman to drive on some distance to a dirt road in the fort's training area. She was raped there.

The second victim, with her assailant still in the automobile, was able to make her predicament known to military police. The assailant was apprehended and turned out to be Relford. He immediately admitted consensual intercourse with the victim. The next morning, after a brief interrogation, he confessed to kidnaping and raping both women.

At the time of each incident Relford was in civilian clothes.

It is undisputed that these events all took place on the military reservation consisting of Fort Dix and the contiguous McGuire Air Force Base.

*361 Relford, in due course, was charged with raping and kidnaping each of the women, in violation of Arts. 120 and 134, respectively, of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U. S. C. §§ 920 and 934.[9] He was tried by a general court-martial in December 1961 and was convicted on the four charges. Relford's sentence was the forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to the lowest enlisted grade, and death. The customary reference to the staff judge advocate was made and the convening authority approved. U. C. M. J. Arts. 60-65, 10 U. S. C. §§ 860-865. Upon the review by the Army Board of Review,[10] required under the Code's Art. 66, 10 U. S. C. § 866, the conviction was sustained; the sentence, however, was reduced to hard labor for 30 years, total forfeitures, and a dishonorable discharge. The Court of Military Appeals denied a petition for review on September 24, 1963. United States v. Relford, 14 U. S. C. M. A. 678.

*362 Relford's case thus became final more than five and a half years prior to this Court's decision in O'Callahan v. Parker.

In 1967, Relford, being in custody in the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Leavenworth, Kansas, filed his application for a writ of habeas corpus with the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. He alleged inadequate representation by counsel in the military proceeding. Chief Judge Stanley found no merit in the claim and denied the application. On appeal, Relford repeated the inadequate-representation claim and, for the first time, raised questions as to the admissibility of his confession, as to a lineup procedure, and as to the fairness of his military trial. The Tenth Circuit reviewed all these claims on the merits, but affirmed the District Court's denial of relief. Relford v. Commandant, 409 F. 2d 824 (1969).[11]

The Tenth Circuit's opinion was filed on April 23, 1969, several weeks prior to this Court's decision in O'Callahan v. Parker. The issue as to the propriety of trial by court-martial, perhaps understandably, was not raised before Judge Stanley or on the appeal to the Tenth Circuit; the issue, however, had been presented in O'Callahan's chronologically earlier appeal in his habeas proceeding. See United States ex rel. O'Callahan v. Parker, 390 F. 2d 360, 363-364 (CA3 1968).

II

This case, as did O'Callahan,

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Bluebook (online)
401 U.S. 355, 91 S. Ct. 649, 28 L. Ed. 2d 102, 1971 U.S. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/relford-v-commandant-us-disciplinary-barracks-fort-leavenworth-scotus-1971.