Case ID: cma_21/html/0076-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Darden, Chief Judge: Quinn, Judge", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES, Appellee v WOODROW NIX, Specialist Four, U. S. Army, Appellant
    21 USCMA 76, 44 CMR 130
    No. 24,532
    October 22, 1971
    
      
      Colonel George J. McCartin, Jr., Captain Albert J. Mainelli, Jr., and Captain Norman L. Blumenfeld were on the pleadings for Appellant, Accused.
    
      Colonel David T. Bryant, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald M. Holdaway, and Captain Steven Mallis were on the pleadings for Appellee, United States.
   Opinion of the Court

Darden, Chief Judge:

If an accused indicates after a court is called to order that he desires a military judge alone to try him, the court-martial must be recessed and the request executed in writing. United States v Dean, 20 USCMA 212, 43 CMR 52 (1970).

In this case, however, the written request followed the testimony of one witness. This procedure does not comply with the holding in Dean, supra, since acceptance of the written request is a jurisdictional prerequisite. Under Dean we do not test for prejudice.

Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Military Review is reversed and the findings and sentence are set aside. The record of trial is returned to the Judge Advocate General of the Army. Another trial may be ordered.

Senior Judge Ferguson concurs.

Quinn, Judge

(dissenting) :

I would affirm the decision of the Court of Military Review. See my dissent in United States v Dean, 20 USCMA 212, 43 CMR 52 (1970).