U.S. v. Felder, 59 M.J. 444

Trial Stages: Merits: Pretrial Agreements

1. waiver of Article 13 motions is a permissible plea agreement term
2. where a military judge is faced with a pretrial agreement that contains an Article 13 waiver, the judge should inquire into the circumstances of the pretrial confinement and the voluntariness of the waiver, and ensure that the accused understands the remedy to which he would be entitled if he made a successful motion
3. RCM 910(f) requires a meaningful inquiry into the provisions of every pretrial agreement; in the instant case, where the pretrial agreement included a provision for appellant to waive motions for sentence credit based on Article 13 and restriction tantamount to confinement and the military judge failed to inquire into that provision with appellant, that failure was error
4. even though the military judge’s failure to inquire into the Article 13 and restriction tantamount to confinement waiver provision of appellant’s pretrial agreement was error, appellant is not entitled to relief where he neither averred nor demonstrated any material prejudice to a substantial right resulting from this error as is required under Article 59(a), UCMJ