United States v. Haynes

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedJuly 2, 2019
Docket18-0359/AR
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Haynes (United States v. Haynes) 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. Haynes, (Ark. 2019).

Opinion

This opinion is subject to revision before publication

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ARMED FORCES _______________

UNITED STATES Appellee v. Michael L. HAYNES Jr., Private United States Army, Appellant No. 18-0359 Crim. App. No. 20160817 Argued April 23, 2019—Decided July 2, 2019 Military Judge: Lanny Acosta For Appellant: Captain Zachary A. Gray (argued); Colonel Elizabeth G. Marotta, Lieutenant Colonel Tiffany D. Pond, and Lieutenant Colonel Todd W. Simpson (on brief). For Appellee: Captain KJ Harris (argued); Colonel Steven P. Haight, Lieutenant Colonel Eric K. Stafford, and Lieu- tenant Colonel Wayne H. Williams (on brief); Captain San- dra L. Ahinga. Chief Judge STUCKY delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Judges RYAN and SPARKS joined. Judge OHLSON and Judge MAGGS each filed a sepa- rate opinion concurring in the result. _______________

Chief Judge STUCKY delivered the opinion of the Court. On appeal before the United States Army Court of Crim- inal Appeals (CCA), Appellant alleged for the first time that, under United States v. Pierce, 27 M.J. 367 (C.M.A. 1989), he was entitled to sentencing credit for the nonjudicial punish- ment imposed on him under Article 15, Uniform Code of Mil- itary Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 815 (2012), for the same wrongful drug use he was allegedly punished for at court- martial. Concluding that the issue was affirmatively waived, the CCA denied Appellant’s request for Pierce credit. We granted review to determine: (1) whether an appellant may raise the issue of Pierce credit for the first time on appeal; and (2) if so, whether the CCA’s actual review of this issue under its Article 66(c), UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 866(c), authority was sufficient. Because Appellant affirmatively waived his United States v. Haynes, No. 18-0359/AR Opinion of the Court

claim for Pierce credit, we need not reach these issues, and thus affirm the judgment below. I. Posture A military judge sitting alone as a general court-martial convicted Appellant, pursuant to his pleas, of two specifica- tions of failing to report to his place of duty, three specifica- tions of willful disobedience of a superior commissioned of- ficer, one specification of willful disobedience of a noncommissioned officer, one specification of making a false official statement, two specifications of wrongful use of a controlled substance, one specification of abusive sexual con- tact, and one specification of assault consummated by a bat- tery, in violation of Articles 86, 90, 91, 107, 112a, 120, and 128, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. §§ 886, 890, 891, 907, 912a, 920, 928 (2012). For his offenses, the military judge sentenced Appellant to a bad-conduct discharge and thirteen months of confine- ment. The military judge ordered that Appellant receive 107 days of pretrial confinement credit against his term of con- finement. In accordance with Appellant’s pretrial agree- ment, the convening authority approved only so much of the sentence as provided for a bad-conduct discharge and con- finement for six months. In his action, the convening author- ity complied with the military judge’s order and credited Appellant with the 107 days of pretrial confinement credit. In a published opinion, the CCA affirmed the findings and the sentence. United States v. Haynes, 77 M.J. 753, 758 (A. Ct. Crim. App. 2018). II. Background Because the underlying facts leading to the charges and convictions in this case are not relevant to the issues before us, we need not engage in a lengthy recitation of Appellant’s misdeeds. It suffices to say that Appellant smoked copious amounts of marijuana, leading him to test positive on four separate drug tests that were administered between April 8, 2016 and June 24, 2016. As a result of these positive drug tests, Appellant was charged, in relevant part, with two specifications of wrongfully using marijuana. Specification 2 of Charge III concerned Appellant’s wrongful use of

2 United States v. Haynes, No. 18-0359/AR Opinion of the Court

marijuana on divers occasions between on or about May 7, 2016, and June 24, 2016. On July 14, 2016, Appellant yet again tested positive for marijuana. Rather than prefer an additional charge, Appel- lant’s commanding officer imposed nonjudicial punishment under Article 15, UCMJ. The Article 15, UCMJ, nonjudicial punishment covered two “failure to go” offenses as well as Appellant’s wrongful use of marijuana on divers occasions between on or about June 14, 2016, and July 14, 2016. Elev- en days of that period, June 14 through June 24, overlapped with the charging period of Specification 2 of Charge III, meaning that, in theory, Appellant’s use of marijuana dur- ing that time could have been the basis of both the preferred charge and the Article 15, UCMJ, nonjudicial punishment. Taking issue with this purported double punishment, Appellant sought Pierce credit on appeal. Deeming the issue waived, the CCA denied relief. Haynes, 77 M.J. at 757. III. Discussion “We consider the issue of waiver as a question of law un- der a de novo standard of review.” United States v. Rosen- thal, 62 M.J. 261, 262 (C.A.A.F. 2005). This Court has rec- ognized that “[w]aiver can occur either by operation of law, or by the ‘intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right.’ ” United States v. Jones, 78 M.J. 37, 44 (C.A.A.F. 2018) (citations omitted). “When … an appellant intentionally waives a known right at trial, it is extin- guished and may not be raised on appeal.” United States v. Gladue, 67 M.J. 311, 313 (C.A.A.F. 2009). In the instant case, we hold that Appellant affirmatively waived any entitlement to Pierce credit. At trial, counsel engaged in the following exchange with the military judge: MJ: And, Counsel, based upon the information on the charge sheet, the accused is to be credited with 107 days of pretrial confinement credit; is that correct? TC: Yes, Your Honor. DC: Yes, Your Honor.

3 United States v. Haynes, No. 18-0359/AR Opinion of the Court

By answering in the affirmative when asked if he agreed with the proposed amount of pretrial confinement credit due, Appellant affirmatively acknowledged that he was not entitled to any additional confinement credit. This is not simply a case where defense counsel failed to lodge an objection. Instead, the military judge directly asked defense counsel if he agreed with the proposed amount of confinement credit and defense counsel expressly indicated that he did. As such, we see defense counsel’s agreement as akin to a statement of “no objection,” which we have previ- ously recognized may count as an affirmative waiver. See United States v. Ahern, 76 M.J. 194, 198 (C.A.A.F. 2017); United States v. Campos, 67 M.J. 330, 333 (C.A.A.F. 2009). In reaching our decision, we realize that the colloquy between the military judge and counsel could be interpreted in a narrower fashion. The military judge did not ask a vague, open-ended question regarding credit generally, but instead couched his question in terms of “pretrial confinement credit.” We acknowledge that, in the military, the term “pretrial confinement credit” typically refers to Allen 1 credit, not Pierce credit. However, Pierce credit has long been consid- ered a form of confinement credit. See, e.g., United States v. Lee, 73 M.J. 166, 169 n.4 (C.A.A.F. 2014) (noting that the appellant received 799 days of confinement credit pursuant to Allen, and 123 days pursuant to Pierce); United States v. Minyen, 57 M.J. 804, 804–05 (C.G. Ct. Crim. App. 2002) (“The military judge … determined that Appellant was enti- tled to … 30 days [of] confinement credit under United States v.

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