United States v. Longhofer

29 M.J. 22, 1989 CMA LEXIS 3502, 1989 WL 103753
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedSeptember 26, 1989
DocketNo. 60,662; CM 449197
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 29 M.J. 22 (United States v. Longhofer) 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. Longhofer, 29 M.J. 22, 1989 CMA LEXIS 3502, 1989 WL 103753 (cma 1989).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

COX, Judge:

The accused was convicted of several offenses arising out of alleged misconduct in the performance of his classified duties in special operations. At trial, he moved for dismissal of all charges and specifications on the ground that his right to a speedy trial was denied. RCM 707(e), Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1984, mandates this harsh and exclusive remedy for “[f]ailure to comply with this rule.”

Charges were preferred against the accused on May 9, 1985, and he was notified of the charges on May 13,1985. Under the provisions of RCM 707(a)(1), the Government was required to bring him to trial within 120 days after May 13, 1985. He was finally brought to trial within the meaning of the rule on April 1, 1986, when “[presentation to the factfinder of evidence on the merits be[gan].” RCM 707(b)(3)(B). The elapsed time from notification of the charges to presentation of evidence was 322 days.

As is typical with speedy-trial litigation in the military services, the military judge received evidence and made pertinent findings of fact, analyzing each of the 322 days to determine if there was a reason to exclude the day under the rules. After he excluded those days clearly authorized by the rule, for example, days consumed in pretrial motions (RCM 707(c)(1)(C)), he then determined that the Government must still account for 261 days. The military judge then “deducted] a total of 142 days as the excluded time from the elapsed time of 261 days.” These days were attributed to a defense-requested delay (RCM 707(c)(3)) or delay which could be excluded “for good cause” (RCM 707(c)(9)).1

After this reckoning, the military judge denied the motion to dismiss. The accused was tried and convicted on the charges and appealed his conviction to the Court of Military Review.2 Although the accused raised numerous allegations of error on appeal, the Court of Military Review focused only on the question of whether he was entitled to dismissal of the charges and specifications for failure to follow the speedy-trial rule (RCM 707).

The Court of Military Review, finding that the military judge had erred in his allocation of days in a number of particulars and that the rule had been violated, reversed the conviction and ordered the charges and specifications dismissed in an unpublished opinion dated June 30, 1988.

The Judge Advocate General of the Army sent the case to this Court under the authority of Article 67(b)(2), Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 867(b)(2), certifying four questions for our consideration:

[25]*25I
WHETHER THE ARMY COURT ERRED IN HOLDING THAT THE MILITARY JUDGE ABUSED HIS DISCRETION IN EXCLUDING 142 DAYS OF GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE TIME UNDER RCM 707.
II
WHETHER THE ARMY COURT ERRED IN HOLDING THAT A NEXUS REQUIREMENT EXISTS FOR RCM 707(c) EXCLUSIONS.
III
WHETHER THE ARMY COURT ERRED IN APPLYING AN ABUSE OF DISCRETION STANDARD OF REVIEW TO THE MILITARY JUDGE’S FAILURE TO SUA SPONTE EXCLUDE 16 DAYS FROM GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY.
IV
WHETHER THE ARMY COURT ERRED IN NOT APPLYING A PER SE EXCLUSION TO THAT PERIOD OF DELAY REQUIRED TO SECURE NECESSARY CLEARANCE FOR CIVILIAN DEFENSE COUNSEL (13 MAY — 9 SEPTEMBER 1985) UNDER RCM 707(c)(9).

Article 67(d), UCMJ, 10 USC § 867(d), provides that “[t]he Court of Military Appeals shall take action only with respect to matters of law.” The Court of Military Review, however, reviewed the case under the provisions of Article 66(c), UCMJ, 10 USC § 866(c), which mandates that “[i]t may affirm only such findings of guilty and the sentence or such part or amount of the sentence, as it finds correct in law and fact and determines, on the basis of the entire record, should be approved.” (Emphasis added.) Thus, we can grant relief to the Government only if we determine that the Court of Military Review erred as a matter of law or if the findings of fact are "unsupported by the evidence of record or ... [were] clearly erroneous.” United States v. Burris, 21 MJ 140, 144 (CMA 1985), quoting United States v. Middleton, 10 MJ 123, 133 (CMA 1981).

Queries pertinent to allocating blame for delays are generally ones of fact. The question is not whether we might disagree with these findings of fact, but whether the court below correctly applied the law to these facts. In this unique situation, we review the Court of Military Review’s decision just as though it had been made by the military judge. Therefore, unless the Court of Military Review’s ruling is wrong as a matter of law or unless it is clearly unsupported by the facts or inferences to be drawn therefrom, the ruling shall stand. Additionally, if the Court of Military Review is correct as to any two of the days that they charged to the Government, -we must affirm.

The test for relieving the Government of responsibility for time is found in RCM 707.3 This rule creates a time line, a continuum. As we said in United States v. Carlisle, 25 MJ 426, 428 (CMA 1988):

ON DAY NUMBER 1, EVERYONE ASSOCIATED WITH A CASE SHOULD KNOW WHAT DAY WILL BE NUMBER 120.

Thus, as we move along the time line from date of notification of charges to trial, the alpha and omega of speedy-trial litigation, we are looking at those events which qualify to exclude government responsibility, thus allowing trial beyond the 120-day limit imposed by the Commander-in-Chief.

As the Government has asserted on appeal, “This case involves highly classified information. All trial participants were required to receive a compartmentalized security clearance, and every step of this case has been complicated by the need to safeguard classified information.”4 The Government urges us to adopt a rule in [26]*26classified cases that the clock does not start until all participants have security clearances. We will thus focus on the rulings of the court below concerning the periods of delay resulting from the need to obtain clearances for the Article 32, UCMJ, 10 USC § 832, investigating officer and the defense counsel.5

RCM 707(c) catalogs a number of unusual or extraordinary events which are excluded from government accountability. The Commander-in-Chief has so determined. Normal, reoccurring events which happen in almost every trial are not excluded. Some examples of times not excluded are the Article 32 investigation, time to interview witnesses, time consumed in preparing the pretrial advice, and the like. Such events, normally associated with every trial, were “counted in” when contemplating how long was long enough. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to distinguish those “normal” events from the “unusual” ones. Compare United States v. Higgins, 27 MJ 150 (CMA 1988), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 109 S.Ct. 1128, 103 L.Ed.2d 190 (1989), which held that forwarding an officer’s request for discharge in lieu of trial to a higher command was an unusual event and the Government was not accountable for the delay, with United States v. O’Brien,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
29 M.J. 22, 1989 CMA LEXIS 3502, 1989 WL 103753, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-longhofer-cma-1989.