United States v. Price

7 M.J. 644, 1979 CMR LEXIS 711
CourtU.S. Army Court of Military Review
DecidedApril 19, 1979
DocketSPCM 13435
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 7 M.J. 644 (United States v. Price) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Army 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. Price, 7 M.J. 644, 1979 CMR LEXIS 711 (usarmymilrev 1979).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

FULTON, Senior Judge:

The appellant contends that the special court-martial before which he pleaded [645]*645guilty and by which he was convicted was not properly appointed and was without jurisdiction. The basis for his contention is that the prosecution did not affirmatively prove that the convening authority in person detailed the trial judge, court members, and counsel to the court. We withheld disposition to await the decision of our full court on a related issue in United States v. Saunders, 6 M.J. 731 (A.C.M.R.1978) (en banc).

Saunders reaffirms the presumption of regularity arising from the promulgation of court-martial convening orders which recite that the constitution of the court is “by command of” the officer who is the convening authority. Id. at 734-35. In the absence of sufficient indication that the orders were incorrect or untrue, no burden of going forward with evidence befalls the Government. See id. In this case, there was not a scintilla of evidence that the convening authority did not comply with Articles 25(d)(2), 26(a), and 27(a), Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 825(d)(2), 826(a), and 827(a) (1976), with respect to creation of the court. Accordingly, the appellant’s contention is without merit.

While awaiting the decision in Saunders, we noted that the counsel on whom the staff judge advocate’s review had been served pursuant to United States v. Goode, 1 M.J. 3 (C.M.A.1975), was not the counsel who had represented the appellant during his trial.1 Because of the indication that this might contravene the Court of Military Appeals’ decision in United States v. Iverson, 5 M.J. 440 (C.M.A.1978), appellate counsel for each side, at our suggestion, set about to ascertain the facts concerning this apparent change in representation. We now have received documents offered to supplement the record, an additional assignment of error by the appellant, and the Government’s reply. The supplemental assignment of error seeks a new review and action because the trial defense counsel was not afforded the opportunity of rebuttal to the staff judge advocate’s review.

Allied papers accompanying the record of trial include a letter transmitting the staff judge advocate’s review to the assistant defense counsel (whom, as indicated in note 1, supra, the appellant had excused from the trial) for his comments “due to the unavailability of detailed defense counsel 2 weeks TDY and 30 days leave.” The date was 27 May, 19 days after the conclusion of the trial, in which a sentence including confinement for three months had been imposed. The transmittal also included a document pertaining to clemency prepared by the detailed counsel before his departure. It requested reduction of the confinement to a term of “30-45 days” so that the appellant could serve his confinement in Korea where he was stationed and where he would be safe from the reprisals threatened by accomplices against whom he had testified and who were being sent to a correctional facility in the United States. The letter and accompanying review disclosed that the staff judge advocate was recommending suspension of the confinement not already served together with the bad-conduct discharge imposed by the court. The assistant defense counsel’s only comment and response to the review was to formally submit the earlier request for clemency and join in seeking suspension of the confinement and discharge.

United States v. Iverson, supra, teaches us that “the attorney who does perform the Goode task [should] normally be the trial [646]*646defense counsel” and that, while “the existence of ‘good cause’ will justify termination of the relationship,” unless there is “a truly extraordinary circumstance rendering virtually impossible the continuation of the established relationship, only the accused may terminate the existing affiliation with his trial defense counsel prior to the case reaching the appellate level.” 5 M.J. at 442-43 (footnotes omitted).2

In ’ this case, we must first reach the possibility that performance of the Goode function by the assistant defense counsel might not, in view of his relationship with the appellant, necessarily have been a substitution of counsel. Examination of the facts, however, discloses that there was a substitution. Assuming that the early counselling about pretrial confinement involved an attorney-client relationship between the appellant and the assistant defense counsel (we have been offered neither evidence nor argument on this point), we believe that relationship had ended. The information available to us indicates that the assistant defense counsel had been detailed to this court-martial (and two other courts) before being certified so that he could gain the requisite experience for certification by assisting certified defense counsel, but that, after being certified (which was the month preceding his evidently brief encounter with the appellant), he no longer participated in cases as assistant counsel. We are informed that, not only was he excused from the trial as the record shows, but he exercised no role with respect to the case or the record and there was no prior arrangement for him to examine the staff judge advocate’s review in lieu of the trial defense counsel.3 Accordingly, we hold that the supposed assistant defense counsel was not already counsel for the accused when the review was served upon him in an attempt to comply with United States v. Goode, supra. Cf. United States v. Ray, 6 M.J. 60 (C.M.A.1978) (summary disposition).

Absent any indication in the supplemented record that the erstwhile assistant defense counsel ever contacted the appellant, he failed to enter into or renew an attorney-client relationship with the appellant. United States v. Brown, 5 M.J. 454, 455 n.2 (C.M.A.1978); cf. United States v. Jones, 4 M.J. 545, 547 (A.C.M.R.1977). Therefore, he improperly purported to represent the appellant and we need not decide whether the trial defense counsel actually was unavailable under the facts of this case. United States v. Brown, 5 M.J. at 455 n.3; [647]*647accord, United States v. Kindlon, 6 M.J. 52 (C.M.A.1978) (summary disposition).4

The Government suggests that the appellant has not been prejudiced by the failure of trial defense counsel to examine the staff judge advocate’s review in view of the simplicity of this negotiated guilty plea case, the brevity of the record, the approved recommendation for clemency, and the apparent absence of any errors in the review. It is argued that the appellant benefitted more from the early action than he would have benefitted by having the review mailed to his counsel or by awaiting counsel’s return.

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Bluebook (online)
7 M.J. 644, 1979 CMR LEXIS 711, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-price-usarmymilrev-1979.