Case ID: cma_18/html/0371-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "DARDEN, Judge: FERGUSON, Judge", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES, Appellee v RONNIE C. GOAD, Airman Apprentice, U. S. Navy, Appellant
    18 USCMA 371, 40 CMR 83
    No. 21,923
    May 23, 1969
    
      Captain Jeffery W. Maurer, USMCR, was on the pleadings for Appellant, Accused.
    
      Colonel C. R. Larouche, USMC, was on the pleadings for Appellee, United States.
   Opinion of the Court

DARDEN, Judge:

Following a guilty plea, the accused was convicted by a special court-martial at the U. S. Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida, of absence without leave, in violation of Article 86, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 886. He was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement at hard labor for three months, and forfeiture of $106.00 per month for three months. Both the finding and sentence have been approved at each intermediate level of appellate review.

We initially granted review of this case to consider:

Whether the president’s instruction that the previous convictions “logically indicate that a more severe sentence should be adjudged,” prejudiced the accused.

This same instruction — also containing advice on the matter that “logically indicate that a more lenient sentence should be adjudged” — was the subject of our deliberations in United States v Wright, 18 USCMA 348, 350, 40 CMR 60. In that case, a majority of the Court deemed the instruction correct and proper. Cf. United States v Wheeler, 17 USCMA 274, 38 CMR 72. For the reasons there stated, the same result obtains here.

The decision of the board of review is affirmed.

Chief Judge Quinn concurs.

FERGUSON, Judge

(dissenting):

I dissent.

I dissent for the reasons set forth in my dissenting opinion in United States v Wright, 18 USCMA 348, 40 CMR 60.