United States v. Martin

75 M.J. 321, 2016 CAAF LEXIS 495
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedJune 17, 2016
Docket15-0754 and 16-0122/MC
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 75 M.J. 321 (United States v. Martin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Martin, 75 M.J. 321, 2016 CAAF LEXIS 495 (Ark. 2016).

Opinions

Judge OHLSON

delivered the opinion of the Court.

A panel of officer and enlisted members sitting as a general court-martial convicted Appellant/Cross-Appellee [hereinafter Appellant], contrary to his pleas, of one specification of wrongful sexual contact in violation of Article 120(m), Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 920(m) (2006).1

At Appellant’s court-martial, both trial defense counsel and trial counsel elicited testimony from the victim’s husband about whether he believed his wife’s account of the [323]*323sexual encounter. Upon appellate review, the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals held that this testimony constituted inadmissible “human lie detector testimony,” but it affirmed Appellant’s conviction, concluding that the admission of the testimony did not constitute plain error because it did not materially prejudice Appellant’s substantial rights. United States v. Martin, No. NMCCA 201400315, 2015 CCA LEXIS 250, at *9-13, 2015 WL 3793707, at *5 (N-M. Ct. Crim. App. June 18, 2015) (unpublished).

We granted review in this case on the following issue:

Whether the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in holding th¿t the human lie detector testimony offered by the alleged victim’s husband was not materially prejudicial.

United States v. Martin, 75 M.J. 59, 59 (C.A.A.F.2015) (order granting review). Following our grant of review, the Judge Advocate General of the Navy certified the following issue for review:

Did trial defense counsel invite error when he opened the door to human lie detector testimony during the cross-examination of the victim’s husband?

United States v. Martin, 75 M.J. 109, 109 (C.A.A.F.2015) (certificate for review),2

We hold that under the circumstances of this ease, trial defense counsel did invite error when, in the course of conducting cross-examination, he was the first party to elicit human lie detector testimony from the same witness on the same evidentiary point. We therefore answer the certified issue in the affirmative and do not reach the granted issue.

I. Background

In September of 2011, Cl3 and her husband, Corporal (Cpl) AI, attended a pajama party at Appellant’s on-base home. Appellant was Cl’s platoon sergeant and direct supervisor at that time. After Cl became intoxicated at the party, Cl and Cpl AI went to sleep in Appellant’s guest bedroom. Cpl AI slept on the side of the bed closest to the wall while Cl slept on the side of the bed closest .to the bedroom door. Cl testified at trial that she awoke to Appellant kneeling’ by the bed, placing his hand beneath her underwear, and inserting his fingers in her vagina. When Cl rolled over to try to wake her husband, Cpl AI told her to stop and to let him sleep. Appellant left the bedroom as Cl tried to wake her husband.

At trial, the Government called Cl’s husband to testify. On direct examination, trial counsel asked Cpl AI about the night of the party, to include the following questions:

Q. Now, after you fell asleep that night, do you have any recollection of touching your wife in a sexual manner?
A. No, sir.
Q. In your mind, is there any chance that you could’ve digitally penetrated or put your fingers inside your wife’s vagina?
A. No, sir.
Q. Why do you say that?
A. It’s never happened before. I have never woken up and just done something
like that with my wife.
Q.- And you said it has never happened before that. Has anything like that ever happened since that?
A. No, sir.
[[Image here]]
Q. When you originally talked to NCIS you told NCIS that you thought it possibly could have been you who had touched your wife?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Why did you say that?
A. I’m the kind of person that if it’s even remotely an option I think about it like [324]*324that. I guess I’m, like, a by-the-numbers-type of person. So, I mean, my wife could have thought about, you know, maybe it could have been another night. But'just the way she has been since then, then I know it wasn’t me. She wouldn’t be acting the way she does nowadays, like, if it would have been me, Even if it was something that she wasn’t expecting from me she wouldn’t be acting that way.

On cross-examination, trial defense counsel inquired into Cpl AI’s doubts about Cl’s account of the touching:

Q. When she initially told you, she didn’t give anything in detail, did she?
A. No, sir.
Q. And you initially thought that maybe she imagined it?
A. I just—I was kind of in disbelief.
Q, You thought maybe she dreamed it?
A, Something like that, sir, yes.
Q. The story didn’t really make too much sense to you?
A. I just figured that if something like that would have happened then .... where was I in this? ... [I]f something like that were to happen to me, sir, I would—I would have stopped it or done something, like, instantly, sir.
[[Image here]]
Q. [A]t no point after [she told you about the assault,] ,.. you never went and reported it to anyone, did you?
A. I honestly ... [it’s] not like I didn’t believe her, sir. But it, kind of, it didn’t make too much sense to me....
Q. Okay. So you weren’t entirely convinced that this happened then?
A. No, sir.
Q. And you told NCIS that?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You thought that, hey, maybe ... it happened[,] maybe [it] didn’t happen?
A, Yes, sir.

Trial counsel did not object to this questioning. Instead, on redirect, trial counsel had this exchange with Cpl AI:

Q. Now, you just told the defense counsel that you had your doubts?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You do believe your wife, though, correct?
A. I do, sir.
Q. And she’s telling the truth?
A. She is, sir.
Q. And why do you think that?
A. The way ... that it’s affected her, the way that she’s changed, the way that it’s affected our marriage—the way that it’s negatively impacted us just as a family— we have two kids, we have three dogs, and she’s just depressed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
75 M.J. 321, 2016 CAAF LEXIS 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-martin-armfor-2016.