United States v. Briggs | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Argued October 13, 2020 Decided December 10, 2020 | |
Full case name | United States v. Michael Briggs |
Docket no. | 19-108 |
Citations | 592 U.S. ___ ( more ) 141 S. Ct. 467 |
Argument | Oral argument |
Case history | |
Prior | 78 M.J. 289 (C.A.A.F. 2019); cert. granted, 140 S. Ct. 519 (2019) |
Holding | |
Respondents’ prosecutions for rape under the UCMJ were timely. | |
Court membership | |
| |
Case opinions | |
Majority | Alito, joined by Roberts, Thomas, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh |
Concurrence | Gorsuch |
Barrett took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. |
United States v. Briggs, 592 U.S. ___ (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case involving whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) erred in ruling that the Uniform Code of Military Justice allows prosecution of a rape committed between 1986 and 2006 only if it was discovered and charged within five years. The Court, with the exception of Justice Amy Coney Barrett who did not participate on the case, ruled unanimously that under the Uniform Code, such crimes that are "punishable by death" under the Code do not have a statute of limitations unlike similar civilian crimes. [1]
This case was considered notable due to its implications on the issue of sexual assault in the United States military and the military's ability to address these types of cases. [2] [3] The case was consolidated with another, similar case called United States v. Collins (No. 19-184).
Under United States federal law, there is a separation between military and civilian law. Congress enacted the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to create a separate, parallel legal system for the military, which is enforced by its own judicial system. [4] In general, under the UCMJ crimes prosecuted under military law must be charged within five years due to the statute of limitations, with the primary exception being the crime of desertion or being absent without leave during a time of war. In 1986, Congress passed a law to exempt certain capital offenses (those punishable by the death penalty) from the statute of limitations as well. [4] At the time of the 1986 amendment, capital offenses included rape. However, in 1977, the Supreme Court ruled in Coker v. Georgia that imposing the death penalty for rape violated the Eighth Amendment. [4] Congress subsequently amended the UCMJ again to clarify that there was no statute of limitations for rape under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2006. [4] This created an ambiguity in the law as it relates to rape and sexual assault cases that took place between 1986 (when Congress initially removed the statute of limitations for all capital offenses) and 2006 (when Congress clarified that the statute of limitations did not apply to rape even though rape was no longer a capital offense). This was resolved by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in their 2018 ruling United States v. Mangahas (No. 17-0434). In Mangahas, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled that, because rape was not a capital offense since 1977 due to Coker v. Georgia and because Congress did not pass a law separately excluding rape from the general statute of limitations, the general 5-year statute of limitations would apply to all rape cases stemming from incidents that took place before 2006. [4] As a result of this ruling, several pending rape investigations were suspended and cases that were on appeal were dismissed.
In 2005, Briggs, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, raped a fellow airman who was assigned to the life support equipment section. At the time, the victim did not report the rape to law enforcement but did tell people she knew about it. In 2013, the victim reported the incident to law enforcement. Working with the Air Force criminal investigators, she contacted Briggs to discuss the assault and recorded him explicitly confessing to the rape. [5] Briggs was tried before a military judge at Spangdahlem Air Base and, in August 2014, he was convicted and sentenced to five months of confinement as well as a discharge from the Air Force and letter of reprimand. [4] [6]
Briggs appealed his conviction and sentence to the United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals (AFCCA) in 2015. In his appeal, he raised several potential issues, including the statute of limitations for rape. However, the AFCCA rejected his appeal in June 2016, in part due to the fact that he failed to raise the statute of limitations issue during his trial. [6] Briggs then appealed again, this time to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF). In an opinion published in 2019 (No. 16-0711), CAAF ruled in favor of Briggs, dismissing the case against him. [4] [6] They cited the Mangahas decision, ruling that the 5-year statute of limitations applied to Briggs' case since the incident took place in 2005 (before Congress enacted the amendments removing the statute of limitations). According to the court, the statute of limitations expired in 2010 and thus the 2013 prosecution was not valid. [7] This time, the government appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. [8]
The Supreme Court granted the government's petition for a writ of certiorari on November 15, 2019, and consolidated the Briggs case with two other, similar cases for one hour of oral argument scheduled for March 2020. [9] However, this case was one of several that were pushed into the 2020–21 term due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and oral hearings were held instead on October 13, 2020; this was prior to Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Court to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and thus Barrett took no part in this matter.
The Supreme Court issued its decision on December 10, 2020, reversing the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces' decision in the trials of the three men and remanding the case. [1] The unanimous opinion of the Court was written by Justice Samuel Alito. Alito wrote that in the interpretation of the law, where for crimes "punishable by death", the government's argument that this applicated to the Uniform Code was more pervasive than Briggs' assertion this was the application to civilian law. [10] Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a concurring opinion, and argued the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction over cases from the CAAF. [1]
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. In most jurisdictions, such periods exist for both criminal law and civil law such as contract law and property law, though often under different names and with varying details.
A court-martial or court martial is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment. In addition, courts-martial may be used to try prisoners of war for war crimes. The Geneva Conventions require that POWs who are on trial for war crimes be subject to the same procedures as would be the holding military's own forces. Finally, courts-martial can be convened for other purposes, such as dealing with violations of martial law, and can involve civilian defendants.
Military justice is the legal system that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bodies of law, which respectively govern the conduct of civil society and the conduct of the armed forces; each body of law has specific judicial procedures to enforce the law. Among the legal questions unique to a system of military justice are the practical preservation of good order and discipline, command responsibility, the legality of orders, war-time observation of the code of conduct, and matters of legal precedence concerning civil or military jurisdiction over the civil offenses and the criminal offenses committed by active-duty military personnel.
Sodomy laws in the United States, which outlawed a variety of sexual acts, were inherited from colonial laws in the 17th century. While they often targeted sexual acts between persons of the same sex, many statutes employed definitions broad enough to outlaw certain sexual acts between persons of different sexes, in some cases even including acts between married persons.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty under the criminal justice system of the United States federal government. It can be imposed for treason, espionage, murder, large-scale drug trafficking, or attempted murder of a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is the foundation of the system of military justice of the armed forces of the United States. The UCMJ was established by the United States Congress in accordance with their constitutional authority, per Article I, Section 8, which provides that "The Congress shall have Power. .. to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces" of the United States.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces is an Article I court that exercises worldwide appellate jurisdiction over members of the United States Armed Forces on active duty and other persons subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The court is composed of five civilian judges appointed for 15-year terms by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. The court reviews decisions from the intermediate appellate courts of the services: the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals.
Courts-martial of the United States are trials conducted by the U.S. military or by state militaries. Most commonly, courts-martial are convened to try members of the U.S. military for criminal violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which is the U.S. military's criminal code. However, they can also be convened for other purposes, including military tribunals and the enforcement of martial law in an occupied territory. Federal courts-martial are governed by the rules of procedure and evidence laid out in the Manual for Courts-Martial, which contains the Rules for Courts-Martial, Military Rules of Evidence, and other guidance. State courts-martial are governed according to the laws of the state concerned. The American Bar Association has issued a Model State Code of Military Justice, which has influenced the relevant laws and procedures in some states.
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay violated both the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions ratified by the U.S.
The use of capital punishment by the United States military is a legal penalty in martial criminal justice. Despite its legality, capital punishment has not been imposed by the U.S. military in over sixty years.
Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977), held that the death penalty for rape of an adult woman was grossly disproportionate and excessive punishment, and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A few states continued to have child rape statutes that authorized the death penalty. In Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008), the court expanded Coker, ruling that the death penalty is unconstitutional in all cases that do not involve homicide or crimes against the State.
Dwight H. Sullivan is a military officer and lawyer. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the Chief Defense Counsel for the Office of Military Commissions. In 2007, he became a civilian lawyer working for the Air Force doing death penalty defense appellate work. Sullivan is a colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to his role in defending the Guantanamo Bay detainees he worked with the Maryland office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause prohibits imposing the death penalty for a crime where the victim did not die.
United States of America v. Technical Sergeant Eric P. Marcum, 60 M.J. 198 is a United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) decision which, among other issues, upheld Article 125 (Sodomy) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice against a facial substantive due process challenge, and ruled that the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) applied in analyzing as-applied challenges. The decision is thus binding precedent on all courts-martial in determining if an Article 125 prosecution is constitutional.
The Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as JAG or JAG Corps, is the military justice branch or specialty of the United States Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy. Officers serving in the JAG Corps are typically called judge advocates.
United States v. Kebodeaux, 570 U.S. 387 (2013), was a recent case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Sex Offender Notification and Registration Act (SORNA) was constitutional under the Necessary and Proper Clause.
Unlawful command influence (UCI) is a legal concept within American military law. UCI occurs when a person bearing "the mantle of command authority" uses or appears to use that authority to influence the outcome of military judicial proceedings. Military commanders typically exert significant control over their units, but under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) a commander must take a detached, quasi-judicial stance towards certain disciplinary proceedings such as a court-martial. Outside of certain formal actions authorized by the UCMJ, a commander using their authority to influence the outcome of a court-martial commits UCI. If UCI has occurred, the results of a court-martial may be legally challenged and in some cases overturned.
Section 839(a) of title 10 United States Code § 925 - Article 125. is a punitive article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Welch v. United States, 578 U.S. 120 (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that the decision in Johnson v. United States announced a substantive rule change and is therefore retroactive.
Shular v. United States, 589 U.S. ___ (2020), is an opinion of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that, under the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984, the definition of “serious drug offense” only requires that the state offense involve the conduct specified in the statute. Unlike other provisions of the ACCA, it does not require that state courts develop “generic” version of a crime, which describe the elements of the offense as they are commonly understood, and then compare the crime being charged to that generic version to determine whether the crime qualifies under the ACCA for purposes of penalty enhancement. The decision states that offenses defined under the ACCA are "unlikely names for generic offenses," and are therefore unambiguous. This renders the rule of lenity inapplicable.