Court Opinion

ID: 9836963
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:15:44.964788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:19.584952
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge
(dissenting):
I disagree with the majority opinion as I did in United States v. Davis, 48 MJ 494, 496 (1998)(Sullivan, J., dissenting). The facts of this case make it highly unlikely that appellant would receive the exact “same sentence” at a sentence rehearing. Id., citing United States v. Sales, 22 MJ 305 (CMA 1986); cf. United States v. Jones, 39 MJ 315, 317 (CMA 1994) (reassessment appropriate where “the accused’s sentence would have been at least of a certain magnitude”).
Appellant was found guilty of two offenses, the marijuana offense to which he pleaded guilty and the fraternization offense to which he pleaded not guilty. The fact that the present findings include only the offense to which he pleaded guilty clearly puts him in a more favorable posture before the sentencing court.
Also, each offense carried the same authorized maximum punishment, a dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and 2 years’ confinement. See paras. 37e(1)(b) and 83(e), Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (1995 ed.). Can it reasonably be said that reduction of 50% in the maximum authorized punishment would have no effect on the adjudged punishment? Would none of the $1,000 in forfeitures be reduced?
The Court of Criminal Appeals’ reassessment is wrong because it is highly unlikely that appellant would have gotten the exact same sentence if he had been tried for one felony crime rather than two. The court below may be expert in reassessing sentences, but it cannot read the minds of a jury and a convening authority in a ease like this, where there is a major reduction of the crimes upon which the sentence is fashioned. I would remand for a rehearing on sentence.