U.S. v. Parker, 62 M.J. 459

Trial Stages: Merits: Guilty Pleas

1. prior to accepting a guilty plea, the military judge must provide detailed advice to the accused and ensure that the accused understands the meaning and effect of the plea; the military judge may not accept a plea of guilty without addressing the accused personally and determining that the plea is voluntary; in addition, the military judge may not accept a plea of guilty without questioning the accused and ensuring that there is a factual basis for the plea; the accused must admit every element of the offenses to which the accused pleads guilty; the accused need not describe from personal recollection all the circumstances necessary to establish a factual basis for the plea; nevertheless, the accused must be convinced of, and be able to describe all the facts necessary to establish guilt
2. the military judge has broad discretion to err on the side of caution in deciding whether to accept a plea; when the military judge perceives that the accused is not prepared to agree that his actions satisfied an element of the offense, that judge is well within his discretion in deciding not to accept the plea

Trial Stages: Merits: Pretrial Agreements

1. an accused and the convening authority may enter into a pretrial agreement, subject to RCM 705; under the rule, an accused may agree to plead guilty to one or more charges and specifications, and the convening authority may agree to limit, suspend, or mitigate all or portions of the sentence; when there is a plea agreement, the military judge must ensure that the accused understands the agreement, that any unclear terms are clarified, and that all parties agree to the terms of the agreement
2. an accused may withdraw from a pretrial agreement at any time, subject to the rules governing guilty pleas and confessional stipulations; after trial, and prior to the convening authority’s action, the accused may initiate a modification of the pretrial agreement, so long as the accused has the assistance of counsel, the modification is the product of a fully informed and considered decision, and it is not the product of a coercive atmosphere
3. the convening authority may withdraw from a pretrial agreement under four specified circumstances: (1) at any time before the accused begins performance of promises contained in the agreement; (2) upon the failure by the accused to fulfill any material promise or condition in the agreement; (3) when inquiry by the military judge discloses a disagreement as to a material term in the agreement; and (4) if findings are set aside because a plea of guilty entered pursuant to the agreement is held improvident on appellate review
4. in this case, the convening authority acted within the terms of the pretrial agreement when he withdrew from it, and appellant is not entitled to enforcement of the agreement, where the pretrial agreement between appellant and the convening authority expressly provided that the convening authority could withdraw from the agreement if appellant’s plea did not remain in effect for any reason, and the military judge ruled that appellant’s plea was improvident, a ruling well within the range of his discretion

Trial Stages: Appeals: Law of the Case

1. when a party does not appeal a ruling, the ruling of the lower court normally becomes the law of the case; the law-of-the-case doctrine, however, is a matter of appellate policy, not a binding legal doctrine; because the law-of-the-case doctrine is discretionary, it need not be applied when the lower court’s decision is clearly erroneous and would work a manifest injustice
2. given the discretionary nature of the law-of-the-case doctrine, an appellate court will decline to apply it in a manner that would be contrary to the sound administration of justice
3. applying the law-of-the-case doctrine would be manifestly unjust under the circumstances of the present appeal where the Government had little incentive to appeal, where the decision of the court below was clearly erroneous, and where reliance on the doctrine would permit appellant to benefit from that erroneous ruling and require a convening authority to provide appellant with the very relief that he had rejected on numerous occasions

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

1. the decision of a military judge to reject a guilty plea will not be overturned unless it is arbitrary