United States v. Newvine

23 C.M.A. 208
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedAugust 2, 1974
DocketNo. 28,113
StatusPublished

This text of 23 C.M.A. 208 (United States v. Newvine) 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. Newvine, 23 C.M.A. 208 (cma 1974).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Quinn, Judge:

Convicted by a general court-martial of unpremeditated murder, the accused contends that, under O’Callahan v Parker, 395 US 258 (1969), the offense was not triable in a military court.

The accused was stationed at Laughlin Air Force Base, which is near the border town of Del Rio, Texas. Early Saturday morning, January 27, 1973, while off-duty, the accused went to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. There, he killed a girl in a dispute over the terms of an arrangement he had made with her when they had met at a nightclub. An investigation by Mexican and Texas police led to the accused. In due course, he was charged by military authorities with premeditated murder, in violation of Article 118, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 918, and was convicted by a general court-martial of unpremeditated murder. As he did at trial, the accused contends that his visit to Mexico "for an evening’s entertainment” was "totally unrelated to the military” so that his criminal conduct was, under the O’Callahan case, not triable by court-martial.

By its terms, the Uniform Code "applies in all places.” Article 5, UCMJ, 10 USC § 805. However, in the O’Callahan case, the Supreme Court held that conduct in the civilian community by a person subject to the Uniform Code, which constitutes a violation both of the Code and the community’s civilian penal code, but which has no special military significance or connection, cannot be prosecuted in a military court. This restriction on the exercise of court-martial jurisdiction was perceived by the Supreme Court as the only "way of saving to servicemen and servicewomen . . . the benefits of indictment and of trial by jury” guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. 395 US at 273. These rights are not assured by the United States Constitution to an accused in the courts of a foreign country in a prosecution for a violation of that country’s penal code; as a result, we have held that the constitutional restriction on the exercise of military prosecution, postulated in O’Callahan, does not apply to conduct violative of the Uniform Code that takes place "in a foreign country and . . . [is] not contrary to American civilian penal statutes having effect” in the foreign country so as to be cogniza[209]*209ble in a civilian court in an American jurisdiction. United States v Weinstein, 19 USCMA 29, 30, 41 CMR 29, 30 (1969). We elaborated on the rationale for the inapplicability of O’Callahan to an offense committed by a serviceman in a foreign country in United States v Keaton, 19 USCMA 64, 41 CMR 64 (1969). The Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has reached the same conclusion. "[Military jurisdiction of crimes committed by servicemen in foreign countries,” it said, "is left untouched by O’Callahan.” Hemphill v Moseley, 443 F2d 322, 323-324 (10th Cir 1971). See also Gallagher v United States, 423 F2d 1371 (Ct Cl 1970).

To escape the logic and decision of these cases, appellate defense counsel cite a passage in the respected work of Colonel Winthrop, Military Law and Precedents, 2d ed 1920 Reprint, to support an hypothesis that court-martial jurisdiction can be exercised as to a violation of the Uniform Code committed in a foreign country only if the offender was present there "in some military capacity.” As the accused was in Mexico for entirely private reasons, counsel conclude, within the framework of their hypothesis,. that a court-martial cannot try the accused for the murder he committed there, notwithstanding the act constitutes a violation of the Uniform Code. Counsel’s formulation is, however, predicated upon a reading of Colonel Winthrop’s comments that is too narrow and too selective.

The text of Winthrop’s statement is set out in the Appendix. Suffice it to note here two aspects of his discussion that are passed over in the defense argument. First, Colonel Winthrop does not espouse an absolute rule of non-amenability to trial by court-martial for an offense committed in a foreign country, when the offender was there, in the Colonel’s language, "for private business or amusement, or on a social visit, or for other personal reason.” Winthrop, supra at 83. On the contrary, Winthrop specifically pointed out that "amenability to trial by a court-martial . . . would depend upon the nature of the offense itself,” and he cited, with approval, the conviction of an officer by a court-martial in Texas for conduct unbecoming an officer while he was in Mexico on a visit. Id. The portion of Colonel Winthrop’s statement cited by appellate defense counsel, which notes that a "crime or disorder committed against an inhabitant of the [foreign] country could ordinarily scarcely be cognizable under the 62d Article [of War, now part of Article 134 of the Uniform Code] as prejudicial to military discipline,” is, by its own terms, not an argument for absolute immunity from court-martial prosecution for the offense. Id. [Emphasis supplied.] Rather, the statement expresses the well-established rule that conduct by a member of the armed forces in the civilian community which affects a private person and is violative of local criminal law is not necessarily conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline. United States v Grosso, 7 USCMA 566, 571, 23 CMR 30, 35 (1957). An unlawful homicide is now a specific military offense under the Uniform Code. It would not have been regarded by Colonel Winthrop as being the kind of offense constituting a violation of the then Article of War 62. Subject to the limitation as to capital offenses, that Article dealt with disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, which, as Colonel Winthrop noted, were not otherwise specifically listed as offenses. Winthrop, supra at 720-722. Secondly, Colonel Winthrop’s discussion of then Article of War 64 and the basis of his criticism of a ruling by the Acting Judge Advocate General of the Army as to the meaning of that Article leave no doubt he would agree that the present provision of Article 5 that the Code "applies in all places” would alone confer courts-martial "jurisdiction over offenses committed ... in foreign countries, and thus . . . constitute authority for the trial, by a court-martial convened in our own territory, of a military offense committed abroad.” Id. at 83-84.

In United States v Bowman, 260 US 94 (1922), the Supreme Court recognized the constitutional power of Congress to impart extra-territorial effect to a criminal statute as to persons subject to its sovereign authority. A member of the armed forces of the United States retains his status as such when he moves [210]*210from one place to another, whether because of military order or as a matter of personal need or desire, and whether he travels alone or as part of a military unit. A member of the armed forces is subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the Code subjects him to its provisions "in all places.” Article 5, UCMJ. In Bowman, the Court held that prosecution of a person subject to American sovereignty in an American court for an act in violation of a statute of the United States which was committed by him within the jurisdiction of a foreign country "is no olfense to the dignity or right of the sovereignty” of that country. 260 US at 102. We perceive no impediment in American constitutional law or in international law to the exercise of court-martial jurisdiction over the accused in the circumstances of this case.

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Related

United States v. Bowman
260 U.S. 94 (Supreme Court, 1922)
O'Callahan v. Parker
395 U.S. 258 (Supreme Court, 1969)
United States v. Grosso
7 C.M.A. 566 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1957)
United States v. Weinstein
19 C.M.A. 29 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1969)
United States v. Keaton
19 C.M.A. 64 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1969)

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Bluebook (online)
23 C.M.A. 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-newvine-cma-1974.