United States v. Snyder

1 C.M.A. 423, 1 USCMA 423
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedJune 5, 1952
DocketNo. 409
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 1 C.M.A. 423 (United States v. Snyder) 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. Snyder, 1 C.M.A. 423, 1 USCMA 423 (cma 1952).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court

Paul W. BROsman, Judge:

I

The accused, Snyder, a Marine Corps staff sergeant, was tried by general court-martial at Camp Lejeune, .North Carolina, on four specifications alleging offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 50 USC §§ 551-736. The first three specifications alleged attempts to entice other named persons' to engage in sexual intercourse with a female in violation of Article 134, 50 USC § 728. The last alleged a failure to obey a lawful regulation in violation of Article 92, 50 USC § 686. The accused was found guilty under all charges and specifications and sentenced to recpive a bad-conduct discharge, to forfeit all pay and allowances, and to be confined at hard labor for one year. The convening authority reduced the confinement to 6 months but otherwise approved. A board of review in the office of'The Judge Advocate General, United States Navy, held that the specifications laid under Article 134 did not state military offenses, but affirmed the findings as to the charge and specification alleging failure to obey a lawful general, regulation. The board further reduced the confinement to 4 months. The Judge Advocate General, United States Navy, has certified the following questions to this Court, pursuant to the provisions of Article 67(b)(2), Uniform Code of Military Justice, 50 USC § 654:

“(a) Were offenses in violation of Article 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, alleged in the three specifications of Charge I ?
“(b) Was an offense in violation of Article 92, Uniform Code of Military Justice, alleged in the specification of Charge II?”
II

At the outset we address ourselves to the question of legal sufficiency of the first three specifications. The first specification alleges that the accused “. . . did at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on or about June 23, 1951, wrongfully and unlawfully attempt to entice Master Sergeant Herbert L. Loewig, U. S. Marine Corps, to engage in sexual intercourse with a female to be directed to him by the said Snyder.” The second and third specifications are identical with the first in phrasing, save that the attempt at enticement in the second is alleged to have' been directed toward Chief Hospitalman Paul E. St. Sing, and in the third toward Staff Sergeant Harry H. Schick.

Evidence adduced at the trial shows that early in the afternoon of the date alleged the accused was present in the Staff Non-commissioned Officers Club, Courthouse Bay, accompanied by ' a [425]*425woman and her two children, aged six and four. As Chief St. Sing entered the Club he was called by the accused to the table at which the latter and his three guests were sitting. Thereupon in the presence of the woman and children, and with a gesture in the former’s direction, the accused in vulgar terminology invited Chief St. Sing to engage in sexual intercourse with her. Following an expression of surprise from the Chief, the invitation was repeated, together with the inquiry, “Where can you take her?” The proposal was accepted as an entirely serious one by the recipient, who rebuked the accused and left the table. Shortly thereafter a similar invitation was extended in differing but equally lewd language to Master Sergeant Loewig as he entered the Club. Later in the afternoon the accused, accompanied by the woman, but without the children, entered Building No. BB-12, occupied as barracks, and there made a similar proposal to Staff Sergeant Schick, who was found asleep on his bunk. On being ordered from the building by a warrant officer who had observed the woman’s presence and overheard the indecent invitation, the pair departed. The testimony of numerous witnesses established that, although the accused had been drinking— he had taken two mixed drinks at the Club — he was quite sober.

The accused was here charged under what has been characterized as the “general article.” In the treatment of various forerunners of the present Article 134, the following language appears in Winthrop, Military Law and Precedents, 2d ed., 1920, page 720:

“This provision, taken originally from the British military law, was in substance incorporated in our first code of 1775, and has similarly appeared in each subsequent issue of our Articles of war. As will be illus- ‘ trated in construing its separate terms, its evident purpose was to provide for the trial and punishment of any and all military offences not expressly made cognizable by courts-martial in the other and more specific Articles, and thus to prevent the possibility of a failure of justice in the army.”

Pertinent portions of the language of Article 134, supra, are set out below:

“Though not specifically mentioned in this code, (1) all disorders and neglects to the 'prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, (2) all conduct of a nature to bring discredit on the armed forces, and (3) crimes and offenses not capital, of which persons subject to this code may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by . court-martial . . . and punished at the discretion of such court.” [Enumeration and emphasis supplied].

In speaking of “crimes and offenses not capital,” the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1951, paragraph 213c, page 383,'provides as follows:

“Crimes and offenses not capital which are referred to and made punishable by Article 134 include those acts or omissions, not made punishable by another article, which are denounced as crimes or offenses by enactments of Congress and made triable in the Federal civil courts.”

Because the misconduct charged in this branch of the case at bar has not been specifically denounced as a crime or offense by Congress, the third class of offenses mentioned in Article 134, supra, is of no immediate concern to us here. Likewise, since the alleged misconduct transpired in the semi-privacy of a military reservation, the second category need not detain us at length. Our primary inquiry, therefore, must .relate to the first of the three clauses emphasized in the relevant Article as quoted above. In this connection we are reminded that “An irregular or improper act on the part of a member of the military service can scarcely be conceived which may not be regarded as in some indirect or remote sense prejudicing discipline, but the article [Article 134] does not contemplate such distant effects and is confined to cases in which the prejudice is reasonably direct and palpable.” Manual for Courts-Martial, supra, paragraph 213a, page 381. See also Winthrop, supra, page 723. It would seem, therefore, that our inquiry in the instant case should be di[426]*426rected to a determination of whether the misconduct alleged is palpably prejudicial to good order and discipline, and not merely prejudicial in an indirect and remote sense. In speaking of “all disorders and neglects,” Winthrop, supra, has the following to say at page 722: ,¾

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Bluebook (online)
1 C.M.A. 423, 1 USCMA 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-snyder-cma-1952.