Court Opinion

ID: 9836722
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:14:53.949453+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:18.665685
License: Public Domain

COX, Senior Judge
(concurring):
I concur in Judge Sullivan’s opinion.
I am an admitted “paternalist.” A paternalist treats others as a father would his child. As such, I am unable to ignore the dissent of our Chief Judge.
Chief Judge Crawford’s dissent, which comes as no surprise given her dissent in Huffman, appears to be based upon the no*118tion that the accused is bound by the conduct of his attorney, who did not pursue the question of pretrial punishment at trial. New York v. Hill, 528 U.S. 110, 120 S.Ct. 659, 666, 145 L.Ed.2d 560 (2000). “[T]he defendant is ‘deemed bound by the acts of his lawyer-agent and is considered to have “notice of all facts, notice of which can be charged upon the attorney.” ’ ” Id. at 664. I certainly take no quarrel with this proposition of law. Indeed, a trial could hardly be conducted without such a doctrine.
Nevertheless, it seems only logical to me that a defendant cannot be bound by facts NOT KNOWN TO EITHER HIM OR HIS LAWYER. Thus, in the context of this case, it is of no moment whether Chief Judge Crawford is philosophically right or wrong regarding the underlying question in Huffman, that is, does a servicemember forfeit rights conferred upon him by the Uniform Code of Military Justice by not raising them at trial? No one has ever suggested that an accused cannot waive many of his rights before, during, or after a trial.
No one disputes her premise that it is far better to litigate these issues at trial rather than raise the issues for the first time on appeal. Indeed, military judges should routinely inquire about matters such as pretrial confinement, pretrial punishment, or the like prior to adjourning a court-martial. I cannot think of a single sentence that I imposed as a trial judge where I did not inquire of the defendant or his attorney whether the defendant was entitled to any administrative credits as a result of pretrial matters.
New York v. Hill, however, is not a forfeiture case. It is a waiver case. Every dictionary that I have consulted, including the legendary Blacks Law Dictionary, has defined waiver as “intentionally relinquishing or abandoning a known right.” Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 1328 (10th ed.1998). Even if an attorney is authorized under the New York v. Hill decision to waive an appellant’s right to credit for pretrial confinement or pretrial punishment, the attorney must know what it is that he or she is waiving. There is no evidence of that in this case. Indeed, if the attorney did know that the accused had suffered pretrial punishment and “waived” the issue, then that is incompetence of counsel per se.
The bottom line is that even if one agrees with her apparently heart-felt philosophy that a servicemember “waives” important statutory rights because his or her military attorney did not raise them at trial, her reliance on New York v. Hill is inappropriate here. There is simply no evidence before this Court that either the attorney or the accused knew or should have known that the pretrial confinement imposed upon the accused violated Article 13, UCMJ, 10 USC § 813. The conditions imposed upon the accused were standard practice in the pretrial confinement facility, and it was not until the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that the practice violated Article 13 that the issue become known.
Lastly, let me make it clear, I may be a “paternalist,” but after over 36 years of involvement with military justice and 22 years on the bench as a trial and appellate judge, I have witnessed for myself the experience level of the young military attorneys who represent our nation’s men and women. Notwithstanding the fact that, in the main, these young attorneys are zealous, conscientious, and try hard to fully represent their clients, they do not always get it right. Someone, somewhere, has to step in and insure that each servicemember is afforded the protections that Congress intended they have. It saddens me that the Chief Judge of this Court, the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, and many trial and appellate judges are quick to find “waiver” or some other legal theory to deny a servicemember relief if it is due.