U.S. v. Rolle, 53 M.J. 187

Military Justice Personnel: Court Members: Challenges for Cause

1. under RCM 912(f)(1)(N), a member should be removed for cause if that member should not sit as a member in the interest of having the court-martial free from substantial doubt as to legality, fairness, and impartiality; that member should be removed if he or she has an inelastic opinion concerning an appropriate sentence for the offense charged
2. an inflexible member is disqualified, but a predisposition to impose some punishment is not automatically disqualifying; the test is whether the member’s attitude is of such a nature that he will not yield to the evidence presented and the judge’s instructions
3. neither side is entitled to a commitment from a member during voir dire about what that member will ultimately do; court is reluctant to hold that members who are not evasive and admit to harboring an opinion on sentence that many others share must be automatically excluded if challenged for cause
4. military judge did not abuse his discretion by denying challenge for cause against a member who expressed an inclination toward imposing some punishment, but who had no predisposition to impose a punitive discharge, confinement, or reduction in grade based on the nature of the offense, and who indicated he would follow the instructions of the military judge and would never exclude the possibility of no punishment
5. military judge did not abuse his discretion by denying challenge for cause against a member who allegedly expressed that he could not vote for a sentence of no punishment where: (1) the member agreed that a federal conviction was itself punishment; (2) the member expressed a willingness to follow the judge’s instructions; (3) it was unclear what the member considered to be punishment; and (4) the member’s responses were given to artful, sometimes ambiguous inquiries
6. military judge did not abuse his discretion by denying challenge for cause against a member who allegedly expressed that he could not vote for a sentence of no punishment where the record reflected that all parties considered no punishment to be outside the range of reasonable and even remotely probable sentences

Trial Stages: Appeals: Standards of Review, Burdens, etc.

1. military judge’s ruling on a challenge for cause will be given great deference and will be reversed only for a clear abuse of discretion