United States v. Avila

53 M.J. 99, 2000 CAAF LEXIS 569, 2000 WL 744127
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedJune 9, 2000
Docket99-0399/MC
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 53 M.J. 99 (United States v. Avila) 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. Avila, 53 M.J. 99, 2000 CAAF LEXIS 569, 2000 WL 744127 (Ark. 2000).

Opinions

Judge EFFRON

delivered the opinion of the Court.

A general court-martial composed of a military judge sitting alone convicted appellant, pursuant to his pleas, of one specification each of conspiracy to possess and import marijuana; wrongful possession of 60.5 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute; and importation of 60.5 pounds of marijuana, in violation of Articles 81 and 112a, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC §§ 881 and 912a, respectively. He was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge, confinement for 13 years, total forfeitures, and reduction to pay grade E-l. The convening authority approved the sentence but, in accordance with a pretrial agreement, suspended confinement in excess of 10 years. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the findings and sentence in an unpublished opinion.

We granted review of the following issue:

WHETHER THE LOWER COURT ERRED WHEN IT DETERMINED THAT THE CAMP PENDLETON BRIG’S ARBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS IMPOSITION OF 441 DAYS OF MAXIMUM CUSTODY SOLITARY CONFINEMENT DID NOT VIOLATE THE EIGHTH AMENDMENT AND ARTICLE 55, UCMJ, 10 USC § 855.

We affirm for the reasons set forth below.

I. BACKGROUND

On May 18, 1996, U.S. Customs agents discovered more than 60 pounds of marijuana in a car occupied by appellant and his cousin’s husband (R.29) at the border between Mexico and the United States. Appellant was arrested and placed in. pretrial confinement at the Camp Pendleton Brig on May 24, 1996. He was put in Special Quarters, maximum custody, and remained there until his sentencing on October 11, 1996, for a total of 140 days of pretrial confinement. Appellant did not challenge the conditions of his pretrial confinement at trial. He pleaded guilty and was returned to the brig for another 281 days, until he was transported to Fort Leavenworth on July 21, 1997, to serve his approved sentence. In terms of both pre-trial and post-trial confinement, appellant spent 421 days in maximum custody at the Camp Pendleton Brig. His post-trial submissions to the convening authority did not raise any objection to the conditions of his confinement. In support of his request for clemency, he simply noted that “I have spent the last 10 months in solitary confinement at the brig thinking about what I did.”

Appellant first challenged the conditions of pretrial and post-trial confinement in his appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals. In affidavits submitted to that court, appellant complained that he had been housed in a windowless cell; could not communicate with other inmates; was only allowed one hour of recreation per day, "five days per week; had to wear handcuffs and shackles when escorted outside his cell; and had to remain behind a Plexiglas partition when receiving visitors. Appellant also claimed that the brig counsel- or denied his request to be housed with the general population. The Government did not dispute the conditions of appellant’s confinement, but, via an affidavit from a brig official, denied that appellant ever questioned his custody status or housing assignment.

The court below, 1998 WL 918614 awarded appellant 140 days of additional administrative credit for his pretrial confinement on the ground that the Camp Pendleton Brig had an “unreasonable” policy of assigning detainees who faced potential confinement of more than 5 years to maximum custody segregation, a policy which was inconsistent with the “individualized assessment” required by Article 13, UCMJ, 10 USC § 813. Unpub. op. at 7. The court rejected appellant’s request for further relief based upon his claim that the pretrial and post-trial confinement constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Id. at 7.

[101]*101II. DISCUSSION

We agree with the court below. Appellant has not demonstrated that the conditions of his confinement amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.1

A servicemember is entitled, both by statute and the Eighth Amendment, to protection against cruel and unusual punishment. See United States v. Matthews, 16 MJ 354, 368 (CMA 1983); Art. 55, UCMJ, 10 USC § 855. In general, we have applied the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Eighth Amendment to claims raised under Article 55, except in circumstances where we have discerned a legislative intent to provide greater protections under the statute. See United States v. Wappler, 2 USCMA 393, 396, 9 CMR 23, 26 (1953). The present case does not involve a claim that the conditions of confinement warrant a wider degree of protection under Article 55 than the protections applicable to civilians under the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment. The Supreme Court has held that “[t]he Constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons, but neither does it permit inhumane ones.” Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994)(quoting Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 349, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981)). In order to find a violation of the Eighth Amendment, two requirements must be met:

First, the deprivation alleged must be, objectively, “sufficiently serious”; a prison official’s act or omission must result in the denial of “the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities.” ... The second requirement follows from the principle that “only the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain implicates the Eighth Amendment.” To violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, a prison official must have a “sufficiently culpable state of mind.” In prison-conditions cases, that state of mind is one of “deliberate indifference” to inmate health or safety[.]

511 U.S. at 834, 114 S.Ct. 1970 (citations omitted).

Conditions the Supreme Court has found to violate the Eighth Amendment include the deprivation of medical treatment and “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs,” Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104-05, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976); the use of excessive force against inmates, Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 4, 112 S.Ct. 995, 117 L.Ed.2d 156 (1992); and the failure to provide sufficient food, sanitary housing, and safety from beatings or torture by other inmates or guards, Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 687, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978)(citing with approval the district court’s findings on cruel and unusual punishment in Finney v. Hutto, 410 F.Supp. 251 (E.D.Ark. 1976)). This case does not involve similar treatment.

Solitary confinement, per se, has not been held to violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause.2 Sostre v. McGinnis, 442 F.2d 178, 192 (2d Cir.1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1049, 92 S.Ct. 719, 30 L.Ed.2d 740, and 405 U.S. 978, 92 S.Ct. 1190, 31 L.Ed.2d 254 (1972). Federal civilian courts have reviewed the specific conditions of solitary confinement to determine whether [102]*102the confinement involved deprivation of basic needs or unnecessary infliction of pain. See Hutto, supra at 686-87, 98 S.Ct. 2565.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 M.J. 99, 2000 CAAF LEXIS 569, 2000 WL 744127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-avila-armfor-2000.