Court Opinion

ID: 9836768
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:15:00.622849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:18.694173
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge, with whom CRAWFORD, Chief Judge, joins
(dissenting):
The Court of Criminal Appeals is a court of law which is required to follow the law when reviewing a court-martial. Article 66, UCMJ, 10 USC § 866 (1994), in no way suggests that that Court is free to ignore the law of plain error when conducting a review on a question of law. See United States v. Claxton, 32 MJ 159, 165 (CMA 1991) (Sullivan, C.J., concurring in part and in the result).
Both the United States Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals and now this Court ignore our unanimous decision in United States v. Ai, 49 MJ 1, 4-5 (1998). Ai held that if an accused did not expressly challenge a member on an implied-bias basis at trial, a post-trial claim of this issue is only reviewed for plain error. United States v. Warden, 51 MJ 78, 82 (1999), cites United States v. Ai, supra, with approval and does not purport to overrule it in any way. Appellee here made only an objection on actual bias during his court-martial. Accordingly, he did not properly preserve the issue of implied bias, and it should now be reviewed under a plain-error standard. 49 MJ at 5. In view of our case law, it cannot be said that the military judge committed plain error when she did not sua *56sponte excuse Lieutenant Commander T on the basis of implied bias. Compare United States v. Warden, supra at 82 (affirming on implied-bias question), with United States v. Dale, 42 MJ 384 (1995) (reversing on implied-bias question).
I would answer both certified questions in the affirmative. The Court of Criminal Appeals was wrong on both issues and their decision should be reversed. I respectfully dissent.