Court Opinion

ID: 9836938
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:15:34.812076+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:19.378531
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge
(concurring):
I applaud my learned brother’s opinion remanding this case for further factfinding to more fully develop the record. As I see the present facts of record, including the unre-butted affidavit of Major Greene,1 they may well support a reasonable conclusion that unlawful command influence occurred. These facts show a change from a special court-martial (where appellant faced no dismissal) to a general court-martial (where appellant faced a dismissal). This change directly followed an incident where the chief of staff (superior officer) yelled to the special court-martial convening authority (the subordinate officer) that he “wantfed appellant] out of the Marine Corps.” A reasonable observer of the justice system in the military could view this sequence of events as command influence. See Art. 37, UCMJ, 10 USC § 837.
Command influence is an unseen enemy of justice in the military. It is difficult to see and harder to prove. The remand I join today may shed further light on this incident, which may have caused a convening authority to bend his official power to suit the wish *38of a senior officer. We may never know for sure, but at least our Court is seeking the truth — but not on the basis of an incomplete or suspicious record.

. The Greene affidavit at this point stands unre-butted. A factfinding hearing may produce more or different facts which may confirm or rebut a finding of command influence.