United States v. Augspurger

61 M.J. 189, 2005 CAAF LEXIS 659, 2005 WL 1503725
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedJune 27, 2005
Docket04-0563/AF
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 61 M.J. 189 (United States v. Augspurger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Augspurger, 61 M.J. 189, 2005 CAAF LEXIS 659, 2005 WL 1503725 (Ark. 2005).

Opinions

Judge ERDMANN

delivered the opinion of the court.

Airman Basic (AB) Wayne G. Augspurger was charged with wrongfully using marijuana “on divers occasions,” wrongfully distributing marijuana, being drunk and disorderly and [190]*190wrongfully communicating a threat in violation of Articles 112a and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 912a, 934 (2000), respectively. He pleaded guilty to the drunk and disorderly specification and not guilty to the remaining specifications. The members found him not guilty of wrongfully distributing marijuana and wrongfully communicating a threat. He was found guilty of wrongfully using marijuana, except for the words “on divers occasions.” Augspurger was sentenced to confinement for three months and a bad-conduct discharge. The convening authority approved the sentence and the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the findings and sentence by unpublished order on May 18, 2004. United States v. Augspurger, No. ACM S30222, 2004 CCA LEXIS 128, 2004 WL 1238970 (A.F.Ct.Crim.App. May 18, 2004).

When a servicemember is charged with illegal conduct “on divers occasions” and the members find the accused guilty of charged conduct but strike out the “on divers occasions” language, the effect of the findings is that the accused has been found guilty of misconduct on a single occasion and not guilty of the remaining occasions. Where the findings do not disclose the single occasion on which the conviction is based, the Court of Criminal Appeals cannot conduct a factual sufficiency review or affirm the findings because it cannot determine which occasion the servicemember was convicted of and which occasion the servicemember was acquitted of. We granted review in this case to determine whether the Air Force court erred in reviewing the findings for factual sufficiency and independently determining which act of marijuana use Augspurger was convicted of. We hold that the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals erred. That court could not conduct a factual sufficiency review of Augspurger’s conviction because the military judge failed to clarify the factual bases upon which the members’ findings of guilty and not guilty were based.

BACKGROUND

At Augspurger’s court-martial the Government presented evidence of three separate occasions during which Augspurger allegedly used marijuana. The allegation of one occasion of use was based on a positive urinalysis result after Augspurger’s urine was tested for marijuana when he submitted a sample for a medical test. Following this positive test Augspurger admitted to an investigator that he had smoked marijuana at an off-base apartment with some friends on December 1, 2001. Allegations of two additional uses of marijuana were presented through the testimony of AB Todd A. Coleman who previously had been convicted of drug use and who testified that he had seen Augspurger smoke marijuana on two separate occasions in January and February 2002.

The “use” specification alleged that Aug-spurger had used marijuana “on divers occasions” between October 15, 2001 and February 20, 2002. After hearing evidence of the three alleged occasions of use described above, the members found him guilty of the specification except the words “on divers occasions,” and found him not guilty of the excepted words. The members did not indicate which of the three alleged uses formed the basis of their finding.

Confusion over which occurrence Augspur-ger had been convicted of was evident following the announcement of the verdict. In a session pursuant to Article 39(a), UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 839(a) (2000), the defense counsel asked the military judge to have the members clarify the findings. The military judge declined to do so but did discuss her concern over how she should instruct the members regarding Augspurger’s prior nonjudicial punishment under Article 15, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 815 (2000), for the drug use described in his confession. She noted that “at this point, we don’t even know if that’s one of the specifications.” The military judge ultimately decided to conditionally instruct the members that they could consider the Article 15 punishment as evidence in mitigation if they had convicted him for the same drug use. The trial counsel objected to that instruction noting that “[tjhere is no way of knowing what the members actually convicted him on or which particular use.”

[191]*191Without knowing which use Augspurger had been convicted of, neither the parties nor the military judge knew whether the Article 15 punishment should be admitted as a matter in mitigation or a matter in aggravation. If Augspurger was convicted of the same “use” for which he received the Article 15 punishment, the members needed to be instructed to take into consideration as a matter in mitigation that he had already been punished for that offense. On the other hand, if Augspurger was convicted of use on one of the other two occasions, the Government could introduce the Article 15 punishment in aggravation as evidence of a separate use.

In the sentencing arguments the trial counsel referred to the Article 15 punishment as a matter in aggravation, taking the position that Augspurger had been acquitted of the marijuana use that was referenced in his confession and that was the basis for the Article 15 punishment. The defense counsel referred to it as a matter in mitigation, taking the position that Augspurger had been convicted of the marijuana use that was referenced in his confession. The military judge instructed the members as follows:

In regard to Specification 2 of the Charge, the court found the accused guilty of a single use of marijuana. If the basis for that finding was the incident described in the accused’s confession, Prosecution Exhibit 3, then the court is advised that when you decide upon a sentence in this case, you must consider that punishment has already been imposed upon the accused under Article 15, UCMJ, for that offense. Specifically, he was reduced in rank. His prior punishment is a matter in mitigation which you must consider. Again, this only applies if, in fact, the court’s finding of guilt was based upon the incident contained in Prosecution Exhibit 3.

In giving this instruction the military judge demonstrated that she did not know which use the members found Augspurger guilty of.

Before the Air Force court Augspurger argued “that the finding of guilty as to use of marijuana was ambiguous in that it failed to specify which of the three alleged divers uses formed the basis of the conviction.” Aug-spurger, 2004 CCA LEXIS 128, at *l-*2, 2004 WL 1238970, at *1. That court concluded that the military judge erred in not requiring the members to specify which of the three instances presented by the Government formed the basis of their finding; however it found that it was able to “determine in this ease which of the three alleged uses the appellant was convicted of, and thus we conclude the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Augspurger, 2004 CCA LEXIS 128, at *4, 2004 WL 123870, at *2. After reviewing the evidence the court satisfied itself beyond a reasonable doubt that the members convicted Augspurger of the December 1, 2001 use, and modified the findings in an effort to resolve the ambiguity. Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 M.J. 189, 2005 CAAF LEXIS 659, 2005 WL 1503725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-augspurger-armfor-2005.