Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 41 - MILITARY FORCES OF THE STATE › Part II - Military Justice › Chapter 6 - Trial Procedures › Section II-606 - Pleas

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. Types of Pleas
				and Their Effect
1. Not Guilty Plea. Such a
				plea places all matters in issue and requires the prosecution to prove the
				accused's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If an accused fails or refuses to
				plead, or makes an irregular plea, the military judge shall enter a plea of not
				guilty for the accused.
2. Guilty
				Plea. A plea of guilty, if accepted by the military judge, admits the accused's
				guilt and relieves the prosecution of the burden of proving guilt beyond all
				reasonable doubt. Before the plea is accepted, the accused must admit every
				essential element of the offense. [See R.C.M. 910(E) discussion.] The military
				judge must make a searching and detailed inquiry of the accused to determine if
				the accused understands the plea, that it is entered into voluntarily, and that
				the accused, is, in fact guilty. [See R.C.M. 910(c).]
3. Guilty by Exceptions or Guilty with
				Exceptions and Substitutions. These types of pleas "except out" certain
				language from the charged specification and/or substitutes words in the
				specification, thereby entering a plea to an offense included in the offense
				charged. The result is to plead not guilty to the charged offense but guilty to
				a different, and often lesser included offense. For example, if the charged
				offense were robbery and the guilty plea by exceptions and substitutions was to
				the lesser included offense of wrongful appropriation, the defense counsel
				would state:
4. "Your honor, the
				accused, _____, pleads to the specification: guilty, except the words, 'by
				means of force and violence steal from the person of _____ against his will,'
				substituting therefore the words 'wrongfully appropriate,' to the excepted
				words not guilty, to the substituted words guilty to the charge, not guilty,
				but guilty of a violation of Article 121."
5. A plea of guilty to a lesser included
				offense does not bar the prosecution from proceeding of the offense as charged
				and the prosecution need not prove the elements of the lesser offense admitted
				in the plea. The military judge must make a guilty plea inquiry into the plea
				of guilty by exceptions and substitutions.
6. Mixed Pleas. An accused may enter plea(s)
				of guilty to some specifications, guilty by exceptions and substitutions to
				others, and/or not guilty to other specifications. After a guilty plea inquiry
				and acceptance by the military judge of any guilty pleas, the prosecution may
				attempt to prove the remaining offenses. If the accused pleads guilty to some
				but not all of the specifications, the accused's admission of an element in one
				specification does not relieve the Government from the burden of proving the
				same element in the remaining, contested specifications. Thus, admissions
				implicit in a guilty plea to one offense cannot be used as evidence to support
				the findings of guilty of an essential element of a separate and different
				offense.
7. Conditional Pleas. With
				the approval of the military judge and the consent of the government, an
				accused may enter a conditional plea of guilty, reserving in writing the right,
				on further review or appeal, to review of the adverse determination of any
				specified pretrial motion. The specified grounds preserved for appeal must be
				actually litigated at the trial court level. If the accused prevails on further
				review or appeal, he is allowed to withdraw the guilty plea. The conditional
				plea enables the accused to preserve his appeal and also saves the government
				the time and expense of a trial on the merits. Conditional pleas are not
				normally granted unless the motion is capable of full pretrial litigation. When
				the pretrial motion requires trial on the merits for a full development of the
				underlying factual issues or the motion is not "case dispositive," the
				conditional plea is normally denied.