United States v. Kreitzer

2 C.M.A. 284, 2 USCMA 284
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedMarch 6, 1953
DocketNo. 1039
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2 C.M.A. 284 (United States v. Kreitzer) 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. Kreitzer, 2 C.M.A. 284, 2 USCMA 284 (cma 1953).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court

Geoege W. Latimer, Judge:

This cause came before us on a petition for review which set out various assignments of error alleging irregularities in the trial of the case. Subsequently, a supplemental petition was filed in which the accused contended he was tried a second time for the same offense contrary to Article 44 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 50 USC § 619. We granted review, limiting our consideration to the issue specified in the supplemental petition.

Briefly, the facts and circumstances which are not all in the record proper but which we accept as accurate are as follows: In the early morning hours of November 18, 1951, Captain Howard and Corporal Harriman, of the military police, while on routine patrol, met accused in front of a cafe in Re-gensberg, Germany. They asked accused for his pass and he produced one purporting to have been signed by Lieutenant James M. Burke but which had expired at 1:00 o’clock that morning. Accused was taken to the 'booking office where he first told the police he had purchased the pass from a German national. He later signed a statement to the effect that he had made. up the pass and had signed Lieutenant Burke’s name on it.

On November 28, 1951, accused was tried by special court-martial for violation of Article 134, 50 USC § 728, the specification thereunder alleging that on or about November 18, 1951, accused [285]*285did “wrongfully make and use a certain instrument purporting to be an official pass . . . then well knowing the same to be false.” He was found guilty of the offense charged and sentenced to be discharged from the service with a bad-conduct discharge, to be confined at hard labor for six months, and to forfeit $50.00 per month for six months. The convening authority concluded that the court had no jurisdiction to try the accused because the specification failed to allege an offense. He, thereupon, disapproved the finding and sentence, and dismissed the charge. Thereafter, a ' different convening authority from the one who participated in the former proceedings caused a new charge to be brought against the accused and he was tried by special court-martial on January 3, 1952, for the same or substantially the same offense. However, the specification under the new charge alleged the wrongful use, on or about November 18, 1951, with intent to deceive, of a certain instrument purporting to be an official pass well knowing the same to be false. He was found guilty as charged and sentenced to be discharged from the service with a bad-conduct discharge, to be confined at hard labor for six months and to forfeit $50.00 per. month for six months. The convening and supervisory authorities approved and the board of review in the office of The Judge Advocate General, United States Army, affirmed. The defense of double jeopardy was not raised until sometime after the record was received in this Court.

In support of the contention of former jeopardy appellate defense counsel argue (1) that this Court may take judicial notice of the record of trial of another special court-martial; (2) that the action of the convening authority in dismissing the charge involved in the first trial constituted a complete trial in the sense of Article 44, supra, and was a bar to the present proceeding; and (3) the failure of the accused to raise the defense of double jeopardy should not be- regarded as a' waiver under the circumstances of this case. Our ruling on the last issue disposes of the necessity of deciding the other two.

Article 44(a), Uniform Code of Military Justice, supra, deals with the prohibition against double jeopardy in military proceedings. It provides as follows: “No person shall, without his consent, be tried a second time for the same offense.”

The method by which the defense is properly raised is set out in paragraph 67a, Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1951, as follows:

“Any defense or objection which is capable of determination without trial of the issue raised by a plea of not guilty may be raised before trial by reference to the convening authority, or by motion to the court before a plea is entered. Reference of such matters to the convening authority before trial is an administrative procedure and action thereon shall be without prejudice to the renewal of the assertion by motion to the court.
“Defenses and objections such as that trial is barred by the statute of limitations, former jeopardy, pardon, constructive condonation of desertion, former punishment, promised immunity, lack of jurisdiction, and failure of the charges to allege an offense should ordinarily be asserted by motion to dismiss before a plea is entered; but failure to assert them at that time does not constitute a waiver of the defense or objection. Unless otherwise stated, failure to assert any such defense or objection —except lack of jurisdiction or failure of the charges to allege an offense —before the conclusion of the hearing of the case constitutes a waiver.” [Emphasis supplied]

The above provision of the Manual was applied by this Court to the defense of constructive condonation and we held it precluded raising that defense, for the first time, in this Court. See United States v. Minor (No. 315), 4 CMR 89; United States v. Charles B. Walker (No. 352), 4 CMR 93; and United States v. Perkins (No. 478), 4 CMR 94, all decided July 30, 1952. We believe the same reason applicable here. [286]*286The Manual language is definite and certain, and orderly procedure requires that matters involving factual determinations be litigated in trial fo-rums. It is impracticable for us to make determinations when the facts necessary to sustain special pleas have not been .weighed by a fact-finding body. A similar principle has been applied in United States v. Dupree (No. 364), 5 CMR 93, decided September 9, 1952 (involving unreasonable search and seizure); and United States v. Bodenheimer (No. 676), 7 CMR 6, decided January 19, 1953 (involving a request for severance where accused has been tried with others in a common trial) where we held that failure to assert certain matters by way of pleas or motion prior to appeal to this Court constituted a waiver.

That the plea of former jeopardy can be waived by failure to assert has long been the rule in military law, and is established by Winthrop in his Military Law and Precedents, 2d ed., 1920 Reprint, page 268, in which the following appears:

“It is now abundantly established by the adjudications in criminal cases that the constitutional right to be exempt from being twice put in jeopardy, or twice tried, for the same offence, being for the sole benefit of the accused party, may be, expressly or impliedly, waived by him. The same principle has been recognized at military law. It was held by Attorney General Wirt, in 1818, that the provision of the Articles of war, that ‘no person shall be tried a second time for the same offence,’ did not apply to a case in which the accused, upon a conviction and sentence being disapproved by the reviewing authority, himself applied for a new trial; the right to take advantage of the provision of Art. 102 being deemed to be waived. An accused would, it is believed, also waive by implication this right, where he applied to the reviewing authority or President to have a conviction and sentence in his case disapproved or pronounced invalid on the ground of illegality, and this action was taken as requested.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 C.M.A. 284, 2 USCMA 284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kreitzer-cma-1953.