United States v. McCauley

17 C.M.A. 81, 17 USCMA 81, 37 C.M.R. 345, 1967 CMA LEXIS 288, 1967 WL 4259
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedJune 9, 1967
DocketNo. 19,853
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 17 C.M.A. 81 (United States v. McCauley) 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. McCauley, 17 C.M.A. 81, 17 USCMA 81, 37 C.M.R. 345, 1967 CMA LEXIS 288, 1967 WL 4259 (cma 1967).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

Kilday, Judge:

Appellant was arraigned before a general court-martial at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, charged with desertion terminated by apprehension, in violation of Article 85, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 885. He pleaded not guilty of the offense charged but guilty of absence without leave, the lesser included offense. He was found guilty of desertion as charged and sentenced to a dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, and confinement at hard labor for one year. The convening authority approved the sentence. A board of review in the office of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy affirmed the finding of guilty and the sentence.

The Court granted appellant’s petition for further review in order to consider whether or not:

The Government failed to properly advise the accused of his constitutional right to counsel prior to obtaining certain incriminating statements from the accused.

In the recently decided case of United States v Tempia, 16 USCMA 629, 37 CMR 249, this Court held, for cases tried on or after June 13, 1966, that the principles enunciated by the Supreme Court in Miranda v Arizona, 384 US 436, 16 L ed 2d 694, 86 S Ct 1602 (1966), applied to military interrogation of criminal suspects. Private McCauley was tried June 20, 1966. The issue now before us must be considered in light of Miranda and Tempia, both supra.

Agreed facts in this record of trial show that appellant arrived in the. continental United States at San Diego, California, from Naha, Okinawa, on October 15, 1964. He was ordered to report to the Marine Corps Schools, Quantieo, Virginia, by November 26, 1964. This order was never obeyed and during his entire period of absence from the Marine Corps McCauley remained within the limits of San Diego and Los Angeles Counties, California.

The question now before us has its genesis in the testimony of Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent McLeod, called as a witness for the prosecution. McLeod informed the court-martial that on April 18, 1966, he talked to McCauley regarding the latter’s failure to possess a Selective Service card, a violation of 50 USC App §§ 454 and 462.

From the record, it appears that Mc-Cauley was, at the time of interrogation, confined in the San Diego County Jail under the name of Richard Anthony Jackson. His failure to possess a draft card caught the attention of the jail captain and caused him to inform McLeod of this apparent violation.

This Federal agent testified he had prefaced his interrogation by advising the accused “that he did not have to say anything; that anything he did say might be used against him in court; that he had the right to talk to a lawyer of his choice or anyone else before saying anything.” An oral statement, thereafter reduced to writing, was thus obtained.

Cross-examination of this witness brought forth the following colloquy:

[83]*83“Q. Did you specifically tell him that he had a right to counsel, either retained or appointed?
“A. In those words?
“Q. Basically in those words, yes, sir.
“A. No, sir.
“Q. You did not. Do you recall if you told him at all that he could have an appointed counsel if he could not retain. ...
“A. No, sir.
“Q. Did you tell him that he had the right to have an attorney present at any interrogation?
“A. I don’t understand your question.
“Q. Did you tell McCauley that he had the right to have an attorney present at any interrogation conducted by you?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. You did not. Did he specifically verbally waive the right to have, one, an attorney in any event, and, two, did he agree to being interrogated ?
“A. Well, not — he did not say in so many words, no, sir.”

Thereafter, defense unsuccessfully resisted the admission of oral statements made by the accused, contending that McLeod’s warning on the matter of self-incrimination was inadequate. With the law officer’s favorable ruling, prosecution showed that appellant had identified himself as Jackson — a Marine Corps veteran owning an honorable discharge for active duty from August 23, 1958, until August 22, 1963. Accused further admitted to McLeod that he might have registered for Selective Service under the name of McCauley, having used that name in the past. Sinee registering, however, he had legally changed his name. Armed with this information, McLeod terminated the interview and returned to his office where he searched his files. Under the name McCauley, he found “an old deserter case that had been referred to us by the Marine Corps.” Pressing the matter further, McLeod was, the next day, informed by FBI Headquarters that the McCauley case was still outstanding. He, in turn, informed local authorities, including the Shore Patrol, of appellant’s true name and status. He advised the jail authorities to turn the petitioner over to the Shore Patrol “when he had completed his civilian sentence.” Indeed, on the 19th of April, the accused was, in fact, turned over to the Shore Patrol as a “county jail release.”

To the issue at hand, Government presents a bifarious argument. Without benefit of United States v Tempia, supra, sinee published, they have contended first that military law is not affected, in the area under consideration, by constitutional limitations; consequently, the declarations of Miranda v Arizona, supra, in no sense govern the situation found here. It should be noted that the Judge Advocate General of the Navy fostered the same comment in Tempia. We reject the argument now, as we did in Tempia, for the reasons there enumerated. Nothing is gained by belaboring this point further.

In its second phase, the Government, assuming Miranda’s applicability, believes that the particular circumstances of this case place it beyond the scope of the Supreme Court’s opinion. They entertain the view that Agent McLeod’s interrogation was not custodial in character; accused not having been taken into custody' or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in some “ ‘significant way’ both prior to his interrogation and incident to the offense of which he was interrogated.”

Said to corroborate this contention are those cases wherein the investigator comes to one’s home or office by invitation (United States v Hill, 260 F Supp 139 (SD Calif) (1966); United States v Fiore, 258 F Supp 435 (WD Pa) (1966)); where the accused is invited and voluntarily goes to the investigator’s office (United States v Knight, 261 F Supp 843 (ED Pa) (1966)); where the accused is only momentarily detained by law enforcement authorities (White v United States, 222 A2d 843 (1966); United States v Davis, 259 F Supp 496 (D Mass) (1966)); and, situations where freedom of movement is restricted only [84]*84because of illness or injury (People v Tanner, 35 U. S. Law Week 2287, November 14, 1966). It is an easy matter for the Government to characterize the appellant’s statement as having been volunteered in the sense that it is exculpatory in nature, not of the whole cloth, and designed solely to escape the clutches of the county sheriff as well as the FBI.

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Bluebook (online)
17 C.M.A. 81, 17 USCMA 81, 37 C.M.R. 345, 1967 CMA LEXIS 288, 1967 WL 4259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mccauley-cma-1967.