United States v. Jourdan

1 M.J. 482, 1975 CMR LEXIS 878
CourtU S Air Force Court of Military Review
DecidedMarch 31, 1975
DocketACM 21743
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1 M.J. 482 (United States v. Jourdan) 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. Jourdan, 1 M.J. 482, 1975 CMR LEXIS 878 (usafctmilrev 1975).

Opinions

DECISION

SANDERS, Judge:

Tried by general court-martial, the accused was found guilty, contrary to his plea, of one offense of wrongful possession of marihuana, in violation of Air Force Regulation 30-19 and Article 92, 10 U.S.C. § 892, [483]*483Uniform Code of Military Justice. He was sentenced to a bad conduct discharge, confinement at hard labor for five months, total forfeitures of pay and allowances and reduction to airman basic. The convening authority approved the sentence except that he reduced the amount of the forfeiture to a sum of $200.00 per month for five months. The place of confinement was designated as the 3320th Retraining Group, Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado for confinement and screening.

Our attention has been invited to nine assertions of error accompanying the accused’s request for appellate representation. With the exception of the matter discussed below, we find that the errors urged are either adequately analyzed and resolved against the accused in the post-trial review or are lacking in merit and warrant no elaboration.

As a part of its case, the prosecution introduced into evidence oral statements made by the accused to Belgian authorities following his arrest. Defense counsel objected to the introduction of these statements claiming, inter alia, that they were involuntary. The statements were admitted into evidence by the military judge. Prior to the court deliberating on findings, defense counsel requested that the factual issue concerning voluntariness of the statements be submitted to the court through instructions by the military judge. The military judge refused the request and his instructions did not place the matter before the court members. Under the circumstances of this case, we find this to be error.

As to this issue, the evidence established that the accused was detained at approximately 11:00 p. m., 18 May 1974, by Belgian custom officials following a sequence of events that had linked the accused to a quantity of hashish found by a private citizen in a woods near the Belgium/German border. He was subsequently taken to a Belgian police station some four or five miles from the border. Besides the accused and the Belgian authorities, Specialist Fourth Glass McClung from the United States Army, 42nd Military Police Group (customs) was present at the police station and acted as an interpreter. The Belgian authorities started interrogation of the accused at approximately 1:00 a. m., 19 May 1974, and the session ended at approximately 5:00 a. m.

Specialist McClung was called as a defense witness at the trial. His description of the interrogation is as follows:

“At the beginning Jourdan stated that he did not want to make a statement except to give name, rank, serial number, etc., and requested an attorney. I then explained the situation to him as I understood the Belgian policeman to have explained it to me. I told Jourdan that Belgian law applied and that under Belgian law he had no right to an attorney prior to or during the interrogation. I further told him that he had to make a statement of some type and would be detained until he did.”

He further told the accused that “upon making a statement to the police he would go before some type of magistrate and after seeing the magistrate he could talk to a lawyer.”1 He never told the accused he did not have to make a statement.

Lieutenant Michaux, District Commanding Officer of the Gendarmerie, Eupen, Belgium, testified that the accused was taken before a Belgian investigating judge during the afternoon of 19 May 1974. Lieutenant Michaux was present when the accused made a statement to the judge. Over defense objection, the military judge permitted Lieutenant Michaux to testify regarding the statements made by the accused to the investigating judge on 19 May. In essence, the accused admitted that the hashish that had been found and turned in was his and that he bought it in Antwerp for $700.00 from an unknown person.

[484]*484On 27 May 1974 Lieutenant Michaux interviewed the accused, pursuant to direction of the investigating judge, to get more details as to the accused’s drug transaction. The military judge permitted Lieutenant Michaux to testify as to what the accused told him during the 27 May interview. Lieutenant Michaux also testified that the accused was given food and water between 18 May and 27 May, that he had been allowed to sleep, that he was not forced, beaten, or hurt in any way.

The accused did not exercise his right to give limited testimony on the matter of voluntariness.

The prosecution called a witness who was qualified as an expert in Belgian law. He stated that under Belgian law no warning of rights is required or customarily given although a suspect has a right to remain silent. He also testified that a suspect can be detained by the police for 24 hours before being taken before an investigating judge and that a suspect is not entitled to consult with an attorney until after a first hearing before the investigating judge. He further opined that to advise a suspect that he must either make a statement or be locked up indefinitely would not render a statement obtained involuntary. In the expert’s opinion, if an individual is told that he must make a statement, the investigating judge would advise the suspect that he has been threatened by something illegal and that investigating judge would disregard the statement. However, the investigating judge would ask the suspect “this is what you said before, do you stand by it” and if the suspect said “yes” or tells the judge himself what happened, the statement would be voluntary.

After both prosecution and defense had rested their cases, an Article 39(a) session was held to discuss instructions to be given the court. Defense counsel requested instructions be given on the factual issue of voluntariness of the statements. The prosecution opposed any such instruction. It is apparent that the prosecution’s position was twofold. First, since the statements were taken by foreign authorities, and therefore foreign law applied, voluntariness was an interlocutory matter that could not be presented to the court members. Secondly, the prosecution urged that the question of voluntariness, as a matter of fact, had not been raised. The military judge refused to give the requested instruction; rather, he instructed the court as follows:

“There is evidence before the court that tends to establish that on 19 May 1974 and on 27 May 1974, the accused made certain oral statements to the Belgian civil authorities regarding alleged offenses of disobeying a general regulation by possessing marihuana. The court is advised that I have determined, as a matter of law, that those statements are admissible in evidence. Accordingly, the court may consider those statements along with all the other evidence in the case, and give them such weight as the court deems appropriate.”

Article 31(d), Uniform Code of Military Justice, provides: “No statement obtained from any person in violation of this article, or through the use of coercion, unlawful influence, or unlawful inducement may be received in evidence against him in a trial by court-martial.”

Paragraph 140a(2), Manual for Courts-Martial, 1969 (Revised edition) in elaborating on the matter of voluntariness provides as follows:

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Related

United States v. Dennis
16 M.J. 957 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1983)
United States v. Frostell
13 M.J. 680 (U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Review, 1982)

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1 M.J. 482, 1975 CMR LEXIS 878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jourdan-usafctmilrev-1975.