United States v. Diaz

40 M.J. 335, 1994 CMA LEXIS 83, 1994 WL 577517
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedSeptember 16, 1994
DocketNo. 93-5008; CMR No. 92-1270
StatusPublished
Cited by72 cases

This text of 40 M.J. 335 (United States v. Diaz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Diaz, 40 M.J. 335, 1994 CMA LEXIS 83, 1994 WL 577517 (cma 1994).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

WISS, Judge:

1. This case asks us to consider the legal effect on findings that flows from a convening authority’s action affirming the sentence as adjudged without mentioning the findings. See Art. 60(c)(2) and (3), Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 860(c)(2) and (3) (1983). The issue arises in a context in which the written recommendation of the staff judge advocate (SJA) had not mentioned findings of the two Additional Charges and their specifications of which appellant had been convicted.

Now, we hold that, in the absence of contrary evidence, a convening authority who does not expressly address findings in the action impliedly acts in reliance on the statutorily required recommendation of the SJA, see Art. 60(d)(1983), and thus effectively purports to approve implicitly the findings as reported to the convening authority by the SJA Accordingly, to the extent that that recommendation misstates the findings adjudged, the action taken in reliance thereon is in error; and the ensuing review by the Court of Military Review as to any affected specification is a nullity. United States v. Depew, 35 MJ 235 (CMA 1992) (summary disposition).

I

Pursuant to appellant’s negotiated guilty pleas, a special court-martial composed of a military judge sitting alone convicted him of unauthorized absence (3 specifications — 2 days, 4 days, and 6 months), failure to obey a lawful order, wrongful use of cocaine, and breaking restriction, see Arts. 86, 92, 112a, and 134, UCMJ, 10 USC §§ 886, 892, 912a, and 934, respectively. One other specification of unauthorized absence (specification 3 of Charge I) was dismissed by the military judge as duplicitous with specification 2 of the same charge. (R. 27.) The military judge sentenced appellant to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 120 days, forfeiture of $250.00 pay per month for 4 months, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade.

2. In his post-trial recommendation, the SJA summarized in detail the charges and specifications, as well as the pleas and findings. Inexplicably, however, he omitted any reference at all to Additional Charges I and II and their specifications (alleging an unauthorized absence and a breach of restriction) [338]*338despite the fact that appellant had been found guilty of each pursuant to his pleas. The SJA concluded by advising that “[n]o corrective action on the findings or sentence is considered warranted” and by “recommend[ing] that the sentence be approved in its entirety....” Special Court-Martial (SPCM) Order No. 6-92, dated May 15, 1992, reflects that the convening authority followed this recommendation by approving the sentence; he did not expressly mention the findings at all.

Five days later, a “corrected copy” of SPCM Order No. 6-92 was promulgated.1 A caption at the top explained: “Due to an administrative error, the original court-martial promulgating order did not reflect the 2 Additional Charges. The convening authority’s action was not affected.” As suggested, this corrected order did indeed reflect Additional Charges I and II and their specifications; it also, however, erroneously indicated that appellant had pleaded guilty to and had been found guilty of specification 3 of Charge I, which, as we noted earlier, the military judge had dismissed.

3. The Court of Military Review divided on the question of what impact on the case flowed from these errors in an unpublished opinion dated December 17, 1992. As to the SJA’s omission in his recommendation, a majority treated the problem as limited to the integrity of the recommendation itself, found that appellant’s lack of objection to any error waived appellate complaint, and concluded in any event that the omission was harmless. The majority, however, did order a corrected promulgating order to reflect that specification 3 of Charge I had been dismissed. Over a year and a half has passed, and still no corrected order has been provided.

Senior Judge Freyer, in dissent, viewed the SJA’s omission as impacting beyond the recommendation. After a detailed historical review of the statutorily changing role of the convening authority’s post-trial action, Senior Judge Freyer concluded that, when a convening authority does not make specific reference in the post-trial action to the adjudged findings, as a matter of law the convening authority approves the findings as they were reported to him in the recommendation.2 Since the recommendation in this case had failed to mention two of the findings of guilty, the convening authority as a matter of law had not approved them, so the Court of Military Review lacked jurisdiction to review them. See Art. 66(c), UCMJ, 10 USC § 866(c). Therefore, Senior Judge Freyer concluded that a new recommendation and action were required as a predicate to that court’s appellate review.

4. Senior Judge Freyer relied on this Court’s summary disposition in United States v. Depew, supra, and he expressed concern over a decision by the Court of Military Review after Depew, see United States v. McConnell, 36 MJ 552 (NMCMR 1992), that was not consistent with his construction of our precedent. He concluded by observing: “Although the implications of United States v. Depew seem clear enough to me, the issue of what findings a convening authority is deemed to approve under the Military Justice Act of 1983, and why, is too controversial and important to be left to implication.” Unpub. op. at 5. Accordingly, he forthrightly urged fuller explication by this Court of the rationale of Depew so as to calm these waters.

Apparently taking up Senior Judge Frey-er’s suggestion, the Acting Judge Advocate General of the Navy certified the following question of - law to this Court, see Art. 67(a)(2), UCMJ, 10 USC § 867(a)(2) (1989):

[339]*339WHETHER THE NAVY-MARINE CORPS COURT OF MILITARY REVIEW CORRECTLY HELD THAT A CONVENING AUTHORITY’S ACTION APPROVING ONLY THE SENTENCE IMPLICITLY APPROVED THE FINDINGS ADJUDGED BY THE COURT-MARTIAL, EVEN WHERE, AS IN THIS CASE, REFERENCE TO ADDITIONAL CHARGES I AND II WERE OMITTED FROM THE STAFF JUDGE ADVOCATE’S RECOMMENDATION; OR WHETHER THE NAVY-MARINE CORPS COURT OF MILITARY REVIEW SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED THE RULE WHICH COULD BE IMPLIED FROM THE COURT OF MILITARY APPEALS’ SUMMARY DISPOSITION IN UNITED STATES V. DEPEW, 35 MJ 235 (CMA 1992), THAT A CONVENING AUTHORITY’S ACTION NOT EXPRESSLY APPROVING ANY FINDINGS CONSTRUCTIVELY APPROVES ONLY THE FINDINGS OF GUILTY CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED FOR APPROVAL IN THE STAFF JUDGE ADVOCATE’S RECOMMENDATION, AND PRECLUDES ARTICLE 66 REVIEW OF THE FINDINGS OF GUILTY OMITTED FROM THE STAFF JUDGE ADVOCATE’S RECOMMENDATION.

As indicated at the outset, we now answer this question in a manner that is consistent with Depew and its logical implications.

II

5. Since appellant relies so heavily in this Court on the dissenting opinion below of Senior Judge Freyer, which, in turn, relied so heavily on Depew, it is appropriate at the outset of our analysis of this issue to consider the Government’s overt challenge to the precedential quality of that case as a summary disposition.

Presently there is no rule among the Rules of Practice and Procedure of this Court that instructs counsel to what extent they may argue a summary disposition of this Court as precedent in deciding a subsequent appeal in a different case.3

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Bluebook (online)
40 M.J. 335, 1994 CMA LEXIS 83, 1994 WL 577517, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-diaz-cma-1994.