United States v. Duggan

4 C.M.A. 396, 4 USCMA 396, 15 C.M.R. 396, 1954 CMA LEXIS 497, 1954 WL 2307
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedJune 11, 1954
DocketNo. 3584
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 4 C.M.A. 396 (United States v. Duggan) 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. Duggan, 4 C.M.A. 396, 4 USCMA 396, 15 C.M.R. 396, 1954 CMA LEXIS 497, 1954 WL 2307 (cma 1954).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

GEORGE W. LatimeR, Judge:

The four appellants, together with two other accused, were tried by common trial under charges alleging mutiny in violation of Article 94, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 50 USC § 688. They pleaded not guilty, but were found guilty as charged; and Duggan, Gomes, and Simcox were each sentenced to be confined at hard labor for forty years, and Comeaux for a term of twenty-five years. The convening authority approved and the board of review in the office of The Judge Advocate General of the Army affirmed, after reducing the periods of confinement as follows: Simcox — 12 years; Duggan and Gomes —10 years each; and Comeaux — 7 years. We granted review in order that we might determine whether the law officer committed error in his instructions.

For orientation purposes, we make a brief resumé of the facts, as they will be detailed at length when we discuss the question of whether the evidence raises reasonably any included offenses. On November 16,1952, the accused were in confinement at the Branch United States Disciplinary Barracks, Camp Gordon, Georgia. At approximately 8:30 in the evening two of the guards had a short argument in the orderly room. When they finished, several prisoners, who had congregated by the window, started throwing rocks and coal into the room, forcing the guards to leave the compound. The commanding officer of the barracks was summoned. He arrived with seven or eight guards, entered the enclosure, and ordered the prisoners to cease their violent activities. Instead of obeying, they increased the tempo of the revolt and forced the military authorities to retreat in order to avoid injury. For some thirty minutes the prisoners continued their activities. During this period hundreds of window panes were shattered; plumbing was ripped from the walls; door and door frames were torn from the buildings; and a certain building threatened with fire. Eventually Lieutenant Colonel Washburn, the Commandant of the Disciplinary Barracks, arrived, entered the compound, and ordered all prisoners who did not care to participate in the disturbance to march out of the barracks. Shortly after that order was given the disturbance ceased.

The appellants were identified as active participants in the disturbance and as a result were brought to trial. The specification under which they were tried alleged that they:

. . acting jointly and in pur[398]*398suance of a common intent to override lawful military authority, did, at Camp Gordon, Georgia, on or about 16 November 1952, create violence by attacking a superior officer and guard personnel then on duty, by attempting to destroy buildings and other government property, and by exhorting other persons to join them in defiance of lawful military authority.”

The above specification alleges the offense of mutiny. (See App 6c, page 476, Manual for Courts Martial, United States, 1951). After the taking of evidence had been completed, the law officer instructed upon the elements of that offense. He then mentioned and gave the elements of the lesser included offense of breach of the peace. He afforded counsel an opportunity to submit any proposed instruction, but none was offered on any other included offense; and the record is barren of any suggestion that defense counsel wanted other offenses considered by the court-martial. It is now contended by the accused that the law officer erred in failing to give any instruction upon the offense of riot which, it is asserted, is a lesser included offense of mutiny.

Article 94, Uniform Code of Military Justice, supra, defines mutiny in the following language:

“Any person subject to this code . . . who with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority refuses, in concert with any other person or persons, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny. . .

It is apparent from the foregoing definition, and the manner in which violence or disturbance is disjointed from concert of action, that the Article can be interpreted reasonably to mean that in the military the offense of mutiny may be committed in either one of two ways. First, if the necessary intent to override military authority and concerted action are present, it may be committed by refusal to obey orders from a proper authority. Second, it may be committed by a person, with a similar intent, acting either alone or in concert with others, creating a violence or disturbance. Acknowledgment that there exists those two means by which the offense may be committed may be found in the wording of the discussion of the offense taken from paragraph 173 of the Manual:

“Except when the mutiny is committed by creating violence or disturbance, mutiny imports collective insubordination which necessarily includes some combination of two or more persons in resisting lawful military authority. Such concert of insubordination need not be preconceived nor is it necessary that the act of insubordination be active or violent. It may consist simply in a persistent and concerted refusal or omission to obey orders, or to do duty, with an insubordinate intent, that is, with an intent to usurp or override lawful military authority. The intent may be declared in words, inferred from acts done, or inferred from surrounding circumstances.”

A cursory inspection of the foregoing quotation discloses that the first phrase excepts violence and disturbance from collective insubordination. Formerly, under the rule applicable in the Army and Air Force, all types of mutiny required collective action by two or more persons. See paragraph 154, pages 208-209, Manual for Courts-Martial, U. S. Army, 1949. However, it is to be borne in mind that the Article of War then in existence was worded entirely different than is the present punitive Article. Apparently the rule in force in the Naval service prior to the Code was that any type of mutiny could be committed by a single individual. See section 46, Naval Courts and Boards, 1937. The new Manual, paragraph 173, supra, suggests a compromise of the two conflicting concepts; and if Congress so intended, then we must give force and effect to that intention. A general rule of statutory construc tion is to construe an enactment so as to give force and effect to each phrase in its relation to others. If we do that, we arrive at the same conclusion expressed in the Manual. Any other interpretation [399]*399would require a transposition of the phrases used in Article 94. We are supported in our deduction by the language found in the Legal and Legislative Basis for the Manual, supra, at page 259. There it provides:

“A change in the Navy’s definition of ‘mutiny’ is effected by the provision in Article 94 that the offense must be committed ‘in concert with’ another person or persons, except when violence or disturbance is created. Section 46, NC & B holds:
‘To constitute mutiny, it is not necessary that there should be a concert of several persons, though it will be rare that this is lacking.’
A change for the Army and Air Force is effected by the applicability of subdivision (a) (3) of Article 94 to all persons subject to the Uniform Code instead of only to officers and soldiers as was the case under Article of War 67. All other persons presently subject to military law who are guilty of failure to suppress mutiny or sedition are chargeable under Article of War 96 in the Army and Air Force.”

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Bluebook (online)
4 C.M.A. 396, 4 USCMA 396, 15 C.M.R. 396, 1954 CMA LEXIS 497, 1954 WL 2307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-duggan-cma-1954.