United States v. Knight

15 M.J. 202, 1983 CMA LEXIS 21982
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedMarch 28, 1983
DocketNo. 42,145; CM 441193
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 15 M.J. 202 (United States v. Knight) 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. Knight, 15 M.J. 202, 1983 CMA LEXIS 21982 (cma 1983).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court

COOK, Judge:

Tried by general court-martial, military judge alone, the accused was convicted, despite his pleas, of attempted robbery, robbery, and burglary, in violation of Articles 80, 122 and 129, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 880, 922, and 929, re[203]*203spectively. The approved sentence extends to a dishonorable discharge, confinement at hard labor for 3 years, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to private (E-l).

Prior to pleading, the accused challenged the sufficiency of the burglary specification on the grounds that the word “break” was omitted. Defense counsel contended that this omission was fatal, citing United States v. Green, 7 M.J. 966 (A.C.M.R.), pet. denied, 8 M.J. 176 (1979); United States v. Hart, 49 C.M.R. 693 (A.C.M.R.1975); and paragraph 208 of the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1969 (Revised edition). The military judge denied the motion, holding that the use of the word “burglariously” sufficiently implied a “breaking.” Defense counsel also challenged the sufficiency of the attempted robbery specification because of the omission of the words “against his will.” The military judge denied this motion without giving any reasons for doing so.

The post-trial review of the staff judge advocate adequately set forth the evidence for the respective parties but failed to set forth the applicable legal principles, and did not discuss the law of principals. Defense counsel declined to submit any matters in rebuttal to the review. See United States v. Goode, 1 M.J. 3 (C.M.A.1975).

In his request for appellate representation, the accused listed:1

2. The following errors or other matters ... as grounds for relief:
a. Charge III defective.
b. Charge I defective.
c. Insufficient evidence to support conviction for robbery (Charge I).

With the record in this posture, the case was reviewed by the United States Army Defense Appellate Division and was then submitted to the United States Army Court of Military Review without specific assignment of error by appellate defense counsel. That court affirmed in -a short-form opinion. The case was subsequently submitted to this Court on the merits. However, on the basis of our grant in United States v. Grostefon, 11 M.J. 358 (1981), we specified the following issue:

WHETHER IN LIGHT OF THE ISSUE GRANTED REVIEW IN UNITED STATES 7. GROSTEFON, JR., DOCKET NO. 41,055/AF, APPELLANT WAS PREJUDICED BY APPELLATE DEFENSE COUNSEL’S FAILURE TO ASSIGN ERROR BEFORE THE UNITED STATES ARMY COURT OF MILITARY REVIEW IN REGARD TO THE FOLLOWING MATTERS:
(a) That the specification of Charge I is legally insufficient to allege attempted robbery because of the absence of an allegation that accused’s conduct was “against ... [the] will" of the alleged victim. See Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1969 (Revised edition), Appendix 6c, Forms 1 and 92;
(b) That, as a matter of law, the evidence is insufficient to support the findings of guilty of the specification and Charge I;
(c) That the allegations of fact of specification, Charge III, are legally insufficient to allege a violation of Article 129, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 929. See Manual, op. cit. Appendix 6c, Form 112; and
(d) That the evidence of record is insufficient, as a matter of law, to support a finding of “force and violence” of the kind required for robbery, as alleged in the specification of Charge III.[2]

After this issue was specified, the initially appointed appellate defense counsel withdrew from the case and were replaced by [204]*204new appellate defense counsel. Substitute appellate defense counsel submitted an appellate brief addressed to the Grostefon issue and our specified sub-issues. Appellate Government counsel, when replying, had the benefit of our decision in United States v. Grostefon, 12 M.J. 431 (C.M.A.1982). In essence, the Government argues that the issues are frivolous,3 that the accused has had the benefit of review of his case by three appellate defense counsel and the Court of Military Review,4 and, in sum, that the Constitution requires no more. We disagree.

In Grostefon, we prescribed a “rule of practice” which required, at a minimum, that when ah accused specifies any error in his request for appellate representation or in some other form, the appellate defense counsel will invite the attention of the Court of Military Review to those issues, and the Court of Military Review will acknowledge specifically that it has considered and disposed of those issues. We did not ground our decision either on the Constitution or on the decision in Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), but upon the responsibilities of appellate counsel and courts as set out in Articles 66 and 70 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 866 and 870, respectively; see also para. 102b, Manual, supra. In addition, we followed the practice of examining the issues not advanced by appellate counsel in those cases docketed on the Grostefon issue to determine if they merited “our corrective action.” 12 M.J. at 437.

What distinguishes this case from the Grostefon series is that, in addition to the common issue, we attempted to specify sub-issues which would highlight the issues identified by the accused and added one other issue we considered reasonably included therein [sub-issue (d)]. Our review of the brief submitted by substitute appellate defense counsel convinces us that those issues deserve briefing by appellate defense counsel and consideration by the Court of Military Review. Therefore, a remand to that Court is necessary. However, some parts of these issues are clearly of a legal nature and can be resolved here before remand.

Turning first to the specification alleging burglary, in violation of Article 129, the pertinent language is as follows:

In that Private E2 Ralph L. Knight, US Army, Company B, 2d Battalion, 77th Armor, did, at Fort Lewis, Washington, in an area of the installation under exclusive federal jurisdiction and military control, on or about 3 February 1981, in the night time, burglariously enter the room of Private E2 Dennis L. Straight and Private E2 David J. Yenske, with intent to commit robbery therein.

[205]

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