United States v. Mandurano

1 M.J. 728, 1975 CMR LEXIS 688
CourtU S Air Force Court of Military Review
DecidedNovember 18, 1975
DocketACM 21855
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1 M.J. 728 (United States v. Mandurano) 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. Mandurano, 1 M.J. 728, 1975 CMR LEXIS 688 (usafctmilrev 1975).

Opinion

DECISION

HERMAN, Judge:

Tried before a military judge sitting as a general court-martial, the accused was found guilty, in consonance with his pleas, of two offenses of selling marihuana and one of possession of the same substance in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 134, 10 U.S.C. § 934. He was sentenced to be discharged from the service with a bad conduct discharge, to be confined at hard labor for fifteen months, to forfeit all pay and allowances, and to be reduced to the grade of airman basic.

Appellate defense counsel have assigned seven errors, three of which deal with the admissibility into evidence of a diary and note attributed to the accused and letters allegedly written by his supplier of marihuana. These, and one assignment relating to the form of the plea of guilty are worthy of discussion; the remaining allegations are without merit or rendered moot by our decision.

At arraignment, when the military judge requested the plea of the accused, defense counsel responded:

The accused intends to plead, to Specifications 1, 2, and 3 of the Charge: Guilty; and to the Charge: Guilty.

After a thorough inquiry into the understanding of the accused as to the nature and effect of a plea of guilty, as well as the elements of the offenses, and after further inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding the offenses and the voluntary nature of the plea, (in accordance with United States v. Care, 18 U.S.C.M.A. 535, 40 C.M.R. 247 (1969)), the military judge asked the accused and his counsel whether they would persist in the plea of guilty. Counsel replied first, “Your Honor, Airman Mandurano will continue his proposed pleas of guilty,” and the judge queried, “You wish to plead guilty?” The accused responded, “Yes, sir, I wish to.”

Appellate defense counsel aver that this exchange of words did not constitute the entry of a plea, and that a plea of not guilty should therefore have been entered for the accused. Code, supra, Article 45(a), 10 U.S.C. § 845(a). We disagree. In the recent case of United States v. Keough, No. S24144 (A.F.C.M.R. 14 May 1975), pet. denied, -C.M.R.-(6 Aug. 1975), a very similar situation was presented to this Court. In that case, the language of counsel was, “The accused desires to plead guilty, Your Honor. . . . ” In holding that a proper plea of guilty had been made and entered, Senior Judge Roberts wrote for the Court:

While the entry of a plea is an important and integral part of the court-martial process, United States v. Robinson, 13 U.S.C.M.A. 674, 33 C.M.R. 206 (1963), no [730]*730provision of the Code, supra, specifies a ritual that must be used in making the plea. ... A guilty plea which merely fails to comply with ceremonial or verbal formality will not necessitate setting aside an otherwise valid conviction.

The following language of Senior Judge Roberts applies to the facts of the instant case, as well:

It is plain that in this case the accused responded to the charge against himself by fully acknowledging his guilt, and it is equally clear that he eohsciously and understandingly waived all of the procedural safeguards provided in a trial upon a plea of not guilty. See McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 22 L.Ed.2d 418 (1969). For all practical purposes, the answers given by the accused during the Care inquiry, particularly the oral confession he made to the military judge, amounted to a plea of guilty. There is no doubt from the context of the proceedings below that the trial defense counsel intended to enter a plea on behalf of his client, and there is no doubt that the accused, too, understood that he had pleaded guilty. The plea was merely grammatically entered in the subjunctive mood; to set aside the conviction for that reason alone would be unthinkable.

We find no essential distinction between the Keough case and this one. In fact, since the accused himself replied to one of the military judge’s inquiries regarding the plea, we find this case even stronger for affirmance on this ground. Hulsey v. United States, 369 F.2d 284 (5th Cir. 1966); United States v. Cariola, 323 F.2d 180 (3rd Cir. 1963); Mayes v. United States, 177 F.2d 505 (8th Cir. 1949). In Cerniglia v. United States, 230 F.Supp. 932 (D.C.Ill. 1964), also cited in Keough, the accused replied, “Right” to the question of the judge, “And it is your desire to enter a plea of guilty?,” and such was held to constitute a proper plea of guilty.

Although we find that the deviation from normal pleading in this case does not constitute error sufficient to warrant corrective action by this Court, trial personnel are cautioned to exercise greater attention to their language and the use of proven procedural forms, particularly in the typical, uncomplicated case.

Appellate defense counsel next assign as error the admission and consideration by the military judge of a number of prosecution exhibits pertaining to illicit and questionable activities of the accused not included within the charge and specifications. These were admitted by the judge, without defense objection, immediately after findings and before the presentation of mitigation and extenuation evidence by the defense. The documents are first, a diary, (“Mandy’s Mini Diary”), ostensibly written by the accused, in which he notes some of his thoughts and activities from 1 January to 1 February 1975. Most of the entries are references to girl friends, places he went while off duty, and his attitudes toward work and where and with whom he “partied.” There are numerous entries evidencing repeated use, sale and possession of marihuana and other illicit drugs. In addition, references are made to other misconduct not related to drugs: “Ripped off an ambulance,” “I hit & ran a car. Ha! Ha!” “Hit & ran again.”

Another questionable prosecution exhibit is a paper entitled, “Dealins 2/12/4.” This writing suggests sales of bags of marihuana by the accused to more than a dozen different people amounting to several hundred dollars. Finally, six letters from “Dale Houle” were admitted into evidence; they suggest that she was the accused’s supplier of marihuana in pound lots and include demands for hundreds of dollars in payment thereof. Finally, copies of several money orders made out to Dale Houle, totalling $670.00 and signed by the accused were admitted.

When the military judge announced sentence, he made the following additional remarks:

For the benefit of all concerned I did consider all the evidence submitted and unless there be any mistake, I did, in fact, consider items that were not otherwise [731]

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1 M.J. 728, 1975 CMR LEXIS 688, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mandurano-usafctmilrev-1975.