U.S. v. Campbell, 68 M.J. 217

Trial Stages: Merits: Guilty Pleas

1. by pleading guilty, an accused does more than admit that he did the various acts alleged in a specification; he is admitting guilt of a substantive crime
2. just as an accused who pleads guilty to a single specification admits guilt to the specified offense, so too does an accused who pleads guilty to two specifications with facial allegations of distinct offenses concede that he has committed two separate crimes

Trial Stages: Appeals: Remedies › Remand

1. failure of the court of criminal appeals to recognize that the military judge had consolidated two specifications of violating a general order, rather than two specifications of possessing child pornography required remand for sentence reassessment

Trial Stages: Appeals: Waiver

1. where appellant pled guilty unconditionally to three specifications of possessing child pornography and the specifications were not facially duplicative, he waived his ability to contest whether he should have been charged with only one specification of possessing child pornography

Miscellaneous Matters: Multiplicity and Lesser Included Offenses: Multiplicity

1. by pleading guilty to each of three specifications of possessing child pornography, appellant relinquished his entitlement to challenge the theory of the specifications and attempt to show that the possession of the child pornography images amounted to only one offense, in the absence of the specifications being facially duplicative
2. three specifications of possessing child pornography were not facially duplicative where the specifications were not factually the same and each required proof of a fact not required to prove the others; each of the three specifications alleged a different date and a different medium on which the images of child pornography were possessed, and the third specification alleged that the media on which appellant possessed the child pornography were located at his off-base home and the other two specifications alleged his possession occurred at his government office on a military installation
3. where appellant pled guilty unconditionally to three specifications of possessing child pornography and the specifications were not facially duplicative, he waived his ability to contest whether he should have been charged with only one specification of possessing child pornography