United States v. Hall

34 M.J. 695, 1991 WL 244298
CourtU.S. Army Court of Military Review
DecidedNovember 15, 1991
DocketACMR 9003107
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 34 M.J. 695 (United States v. Hall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Army 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. Hall, 34 M.J. 695, 1991 WL 244298 (usarmymilrev 1991).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

HAGAN, Judge:

A military judge sitting as a general court-martial convicted the appellant, based upon mixed pleas, of one specification of sodomy, and of two specifications of adultery and videotaping those acts, in violation of Articles 125 and 133, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 925 and 933 (1982) [hereinafter UCMJ]. The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence to dismissal and forfeiture of $1000 pay per month for three months.

The errors claimed are, first, that the specifications alleging adultery and sodomy are multiplicious for sentencing; second, that the record fails to support a finding of anal intercourse, but, instead, an act of vaginal intercourse; and third, in response to the recent opinion of the U.S. Air Force Court of Military Review which reversed the sodomy conviction of an airman, that the constitutional right of privacy extends to heterosexual, noncommercial, private acts of oral sex between consenting adults. United States v. Fagg, 33 M.J. 618 (A.F.C.M.R.1991).

After providing the relevant facts, we discuss and decide the legal and factual sufficiency of the record, and apply the law to the issue of multiplicity. We devote the largest part of our opinion to consideration of the constitutionality of Article 125, UCMJ, which prohibits—without exception of any nature whatsoever—sodomy.1

[696]*696FACTS

Appellant’s wife, also an Army officer, returned to their quarters one afternoon to find a videotape cartridge near the video recorder. Believing that her husband may have recorded scenes of their children playing, she began to view the tape. The greater portion of the video vividly reveals the appellant and another woman (later determined to be the wife of a junior non-commissioned officer) engaging in sexual acts; the latter portion of the tape (which the appellant’s wife did not' then know; she stopped viewing the tape almost immediately) discloses the appellant having sex with still another woman. The videotaped “missionary position” scenes of intercourse with both women were the bases for the adultery and wrongful videotaping specifications. A segment of the tape depicts the appellant either engaging in vaginal intercourse by means of entry from the rear (the view urged upon the trial court and us by the appellant), or of anal intercourse (as the government counsel contend), which brought about the charge of sodomy. The appellant pleaded guilty to the adultery and wrongful videotaping of his sexual encounters with his nonmarital partners. He pleaded not guilty to sodomy. Other than the film, the only evidence about the act is the testimony of the woman involved, who admitted vaginal, but denied anal, intercourse.

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

The first assignment of error requires that we find whether the appellant engaged in vaginal or anal intercourse. Our responsibility and power are clear:

Under Article 66(c) of the Uniform Code, 10 U.S.C. § 866(c), the Court of Military Review has the duty of determining not only the legal sufficiency of the evidence but also its factual sufficiency. The test for the former is whether, considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a reasonable factfinder could have found all the essential elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). For factual sufficiency, the test is whether, after weighing the evidence in the record of trial and making allowances for not having personally observed the witnesses, the members of the Court of Military Review are themselves convinced of the accused’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

United States v. Turner, 25 M.J. 324-325 (C.M.A.1987).

After many minutes of foreplay and vaginal intercourse in the “missionary” and related positions, the appellant turns his partner around so that she supports herself on her knees while the appellant enters her. But what part of her does he enter? If her vagina, he merely continues the adulterous affair with another act of “normal” sexual intercourse. If, however, he penetrates her anus, he violates Article 125. We are satisfied that the appellant entered his partner’s anus, rather than her vagina, and that the standards for legal and factual sufficiency have been met.

MULTIPLICITY

Appellant next asserts that the trial judge erred in failing, sua sponte, either to consolidate the sodomy charge with the adultery charge, or to dismiss one as multiplicious for sentencing. We need not dispose of that claim. The appellant waived this issue on appeal by failing to have asserted it at trial. United States v. Flynn, 28 M.J. 218 (C.M.A.1989). We specifically find, however, that, under the circumstances of this case, even if the sodomy charge were to be multiplicious for sentencing with the adultery offenses, the appellant was not prejudiced.

THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND ARTICLE 125, UCMJ

The Air Force Court of Military Review held in Fagg that the constitutional right of privacy extends to heterosexual, noncommercial, private acts of oral sex between consenting adults. United States v. Fagg, 33 M.J. at 619. In the view of that [697]*697court at least, to the extent that Article 125 purports to include such acts within its prohibitive ambit, it is unconstitutional. The appellant asks us to so hold, too. We disagree; the balance of this opinion tells why.

The existence of the right to privacy is incontrovertible. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965); the nature and extent of that right is far less certain. “The constitutional right to privacy has vague contours and has been in a state of flux in recent years____” James v. City of Douglas, 941 F.2d 1539, 1543 (11th Cir.1991).2 We find it unnecessary to discuss in exquisite detail whether the right to privacy is as some insist, linked and limited to family and procreative acts (see, e.g., Schochet v. Maryland, 75 Md.App. 314, 541 A.2d 183 (Spec.App.1988), rev’d, 320 Md. 714, 580 A.2d 176, 184 (1990)), or whether it is, as others find it, far broader (see, e.g., Schochet v. State, 320 Md. 714, 580 A.2d 176, 184 (1990)).3 What is certain to us is that our court and, more importantly, the United States Court of Military Appeals, have spoken on this issue, have spoken more than once, and, most importantly, have spoken recently, clearly, and dispositively.

The Fagg

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Bluebook (online)
34 M.J. 695, 1991 WL 244298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-hall-usarmymilrev-1991.