United States v. Dempsey

1 M.J. 835, 1976 CMR LEXIS 861
CourtU S Air Force Court of Military Review
DecidedApril 1, 1976
DocketACM 21919
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1 M.J. 835 (United States v. Dempsey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U S Air Force Court of Military Review primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Dempsey, 1 M.J. 835, 1976 CMR LEXIS 861 (usafctmilrev 1976).

Opinion

DECISION

ROBERTS, Senior Judge:

Tried by a military judge sitting alone as a general court-martial, the accused stands convicted of several violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice including burglary, larceny, and obstruction of justice, in violation of Articles 129, 121, and 134, 10 U.S.C. §§ 929, 921, 934. The approved sentence is a bad conduct discharge, confinement at hard labor for two years, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to the grade of airman basic.

Appellate defense counsel have assigned for our consideration several claims of error, but in view of our disposition of the appeal, it is appropriate that we discuss only two of the errors asserted.

We are constrained to address the first claim of error, which is that the accused was denied his right to a speedy trial, because our agreement therewith would result in the dismissal of all charges and render the other issues moot. The accused was placed in pretrial confinement on 17 March 1975 and was still confined when [837]*837finally brought to trial on 18 June 1975, a period of 94 days. If the entire period of the delay is chargeable to the Government, then the accused is entitled to dismissal of the charges because he has presumptively been denied his entitlement to a speedy trial as guaranteed by Article 10 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. United States v. Burton, 21 U.S.C.M.A. 112, 44 C.M.R. 166 (1971); United States v. Marshall, 22 U.S.C.M.A. 431, 47 C.M.R. 409 (1973). But, periods of delay occasioned by defense requests are excluded from the operation of the 90-day rule established in Burton. United States v. Driver, 23 U.S.C.M.A. 243, 49 C.M.R. 376 (1974).

The record of trial in this case reflects that a trial date was originally established for 30 April 1975, at which time there had been only 45 days of pretrial confinement. On the day before the anticipated trial date, the defense counsel submitted a request that the accused be given further psychiatric evaluation, even though he had been evaluated by a clinical psychologist at an earlier time, because of bizarre behavior that had been subsequently noted. The request was granted and the trial was postponed. The requested report of psychiatric evaluation was completed on 20 May 1975 but, because of conflicting duties of trial personnel, the ease was not finally brought to trial until 18 June 1975.

We will assume that even though some of the delay between the preparation of the psychiatric report on 20 May and 18 June might be excusable as beyond the control of the Government, the Government would be charged with and required to explain that entire period. We note too, that under some circumstances the necessity for psychiatric evaluation might be considered “[a] normal problem as . . [is] caused by difficulties usually encountered in the processing of charges for trial.” United States v. Beach, 23 U.S.C.M.A. 480, 50 C.M.R. 560, 1 M.J. 118 (1975).

However, we find that in this case the eleventh hour request for psychiatric examination by the defense counsel occasioned the delay in the trial and should be excluded from the period chargeable to the Government. As noted above, the accused had already been evaluated by a psychologist before any charges were preferred. The results of this evaluation were apparently known to the defense counsel when he was appointed on 11 April 1975. It was only because of the accused’s conduct following that date that the defense desired his mental condition be further explored. The decision to make the request inevitably postponed the trial. There may have been some unnecessary administrative delay chargeable to the Government between the date of the request and the preparation of the final report 20 days later. However, the report indicates that the second examining psychiatrist consulted with the accused on three occasions and that during the evaluation the accused was given a battery of psychological tests. These circumstances clearly establish that more than five days were involved in the evaluation which should be charged to the defense. Thus, the Burton presumption never arose, and there being nothing to show any purposeful or oppressive design on the part of the Government to delay the trial, the accused has not been denied his right to a speedy trial. United States v. Driver, supra; United States v. Hensley, 50 C.M.R. 677 (A.C.M.R.1975); see also United States v. McClain, 23 U.S.C.M.A. 453, 50 C.M.R. 472, 1 M.J. 60 (1975).

Even if the facts were otherwise, we have substantial doubt that the speedy trial issue has been preserved for appeal. The trial defense counsel never specifically moved that the charges be dismissed in view of the apparent violation of the 90-day rule established in United States v. Burton, supra. During a 39(a) session held on 4 June 1975, at which time the trial counsel was not prepared to go to trial because of his participation in other cases, the defense counsel did demand that the Government proceed. During the discussion of the scheduling problems, both counsel and the military judge made remarks clearly indicating that they had United States v. Burton, supra, in mind while trying to arrive at an agreeable date.

[838]*838Although it is apparent the participants in the trial were concerned about the Burton 90-day rule, the record, which was examined by the defense counsel, does not show that a motion to dismiss the charge because of a presumptive violation of Article 10 was ever made at trial. Counsel probably intended to make such a motion, and, indeed, he may have believed that he did. It is noted that in his comments on the review of the staff judge advocate, he faults the author for not properly evaluating his motion to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial. But none was in fact made, and a motion to dismiss at trial is a sine qua non for consideration of the issue on appeal unless there is evidence indicating a denial of military due process or manifest injustice. United States v. Sloan, 22 U.S.C.M.A. 587, 48 C.M.R. 211 (1974). However, we need not decide whether the supposed speedy trial issue was waived by the trial defense counsel, for as noted above the facts do not show the denial of a speedy trial. Hence, had a motion been made, it would have been properly denied.

In the second issue we will discuss, appellate defense counsel contend that:

APPELLANT WAS, AND IS, BEING DEPRIVED OF HIS RIGHT TO SPEEDY POST-TRIAL REVIEW WHERE THERE WAS NO ACTION BY A NONDISQUALIFIED CONVENING AUTHORITY.

The basis for this assertion is a claim that the convening authority who took action on the record of trial was disqualified because of a promise of substantial clemency made to an important prosecution witness by his staff judge advocate. We do not agree with the assigned issue as it is framed. We are of the view that the convening authority was disqualified from acting on the record of trial, but we are not in accord with the conclusion of appellate defense counsel that the accused has thus been denied a speedy disposition of the review of his case under the rule established in Dunlap v. Convening Authority, 23 U.S.C.M.A. 135, 48 C.M.R. 751 (1974). As we said in United States v. Burton, 50 C.M.R. 547 (A.F.C.M.R.1975), pet. denied, 50 C.M. R. 903 (1975):

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