Court Opinion

ID: 9836984
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:15:52.053739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:19.656431
License: Public Domain

EFFRON, Judge
(concurring in part and in the result):
I disagree with that portion of the majority opinion suggesting that the testimony of COL Newman and SFC Hutchinson was not objectionable. With respect to each, the testimony did not reflect that either possessed “sufficient information and knowledge about [appellant] to offer a rationally-based opinion that [would be] helpful to the sentencing authority,” as required by RCM 1001(b)(5)(B). Neither of these witnesses had a personal relationship with the appellant. Neither provided sentencing testimony of a such a specialized nature that it would have been beyond the type of knowledge possessed by any court member selected to serve as “best qualified” by reason of training, experience, and the other factors set forth in Article 25, UCMJ, 10 USC § 825. The essence of the their testimony focused on the impact on themselves and others of the fact that appellant committed the charged offenses, which is the type of consideration that a court member qualified under Article 25 would bring to a sentencing deliberation.
I agree that this questioning did not constitute prejudicial plain error, particularly in view of defense counsel’s questioning of these witnesses about their personal knowledge of appellant. In the absence of an objection, however, I do not agree that this case provides an appropriate vehicle for considering the type of testimony that may be provided on sentencing. Absent litigation about the nature of the information, its admissibility under RCM 1001, and its relationship to Article 25, the record before this Court does not permit appropriate consideration of the parameters of permissible sentencing testimony.