Case ID: cma_17/html/0054-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES, Appellee v JOSE A. RODRIGUEZ, Airman Third Class, U. S. Air Force, Appellant
    17 USCMA 54, 37 CMR 318
    
      No. 20,054
    May 26, 1967
    
      Colonel Joseph Buckta and Lieutenant Colonel Milton E. Kosa were on the pleadings for Appellant, Accused.
    
      Colonel James R. Thorn was on the pleadings for Appellee, United States.
   Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM:

Appellant pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, wrongful possession, sale, and use of marihuana, in violation of Article 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 934. As approved, his sentence includes a dishonorable discharge and confinement at hard labor for five years.

During the sentence proceedings, the court-martial was informed that smoking marihuana was “an old thing” for the accused because he had been doing it since he was twelve years of age and “everybody seems to do it where he comes from.” No instruction was given as to the limited purpose for which the court could consider the evidence of offenses not charged. The omission was error. United States v Gewin, 14 USCMA 224, 34 CMR 4; United States v Turner, 16 USCMA 80, 36 CMR 236. Although the sentence imposed by the court-martial was reduced by the convening authority on the initial review, the effect of the instructional error on the sentence was not considered. Corrective action, therefore, is still required. Cf. United States v Peters, 8 USCMA 520, 25 CMR 24.

The decision of the board of review as to the sentence is reversed. The record of trial is returned to the Judge Advocate General of the Air Force for submission to the board of review for reconsideration of the sentence, in light of this opinion.