Court martial

“ Whilst martial law is the will of the commanders, and is only limited by the customs of war and the discretion of those who administer it, still, as far as practicable, the procedure of military law is followed, and a military court is held on the same lines as a court-martial. ”

“ We deal with the term 'in time of peace' in the setting of a grant of power to military tribunals to try people for capital offenses. Did Congress design a broad or a narrow grant of authority? Is the authority of a court-martial to try a soldier for a civil crime, such as murder or rape, to be generously or strictly construed? ”

“ If I am correctly informed, court martials often impose on an enlisted man caught in a misdemeanor a prison sentence several times as lengthy as would a civil court. I take this opportunity to enter a plea for better treatment of common soldiers, who have been my "pals" for a quarter of a century—particularly for punishments by court martial no more severe than by civil courts. Sometimes I have thought that when an uneducated young man enlists to defend his country as a common soldier, he thereby forfeits all rights of citizenship and all privileges guaranteed by the American constitution. ”

“ Court martial proceedings create martyrs. History shows that the names of such men are on everybody’s lips, whereas there is silence with regard to the many thousands who have lost their lives in similar circumstances without court martial proceedings. ”

“ Offences to the contrary shall be severely punished in the American army, and especially so if committed by officers.
§ 12. Whenever feasible, Martial Law is carried out, in cases of individual offences, by courts-martial, and sentences of death shall be executed only by the approval of the commander of the army corps, provided the urgency of the case does not require a speedier execution. In no case shall a sentence of death by court-martial be executed without the approval of a general officer. ”

“ It recognises no trial or adjudication as a condition of its exercise. It requires no authoritative judicial declaration of the rights protected or of the wrongs punished by it. When a rebellion or a riot is suppressed by troops, this is the extrajudicial use of force; but when, after its suppression, the rebels or rioters are tried, sentenced, and punished by the criminal courts, the force so used is judicial. To shoot a man on the field of battle or at a barricade is war; to shoot him after capture and condemnation by a court martial is the administration of justice. ”

“ On the contrary, that act authorizes the President to call forth the militia to suppress insurrections, and to enforce the laws of the United States, in times of peace. And Courts Martial are, under the 5th section of the act, entitled to take cognizance of, and to punish delinquencies in such cases, as well as in cases where the object is to repel invasion in times of war. ”

“ We have held in a series of decisions that court-martial jurisdiction cannot be extended to reach any person not a member of the Armed Forces at the times of both the offense and the trial. Thus, discharged soldiers cannot be court-martialed for offenses committed while in service. ”

“ When the war was over the Supreme Court decided, in Milligan's case, [22] after the most solemn argument and deep consideration, that the President could not declare martial law in any district not invaded by the enemy and where the judges were on the bench and the courts of law in operation. Martial law exists where there is a battle. It exists in a community where war exists and the courts and civil authorities are overthrown. A commander at the head of his army may impose it on states in rebellion, to cripple their resources and quell the insurrection. ”

“ There is no officer in the Army whose position is so thoroughly safeguarded as the N.C.O., and nothing but the adverse decision of a court martial can effect his removal. Yet an unsuitable and even dangerous man, from the point of view of the sick, may do nothing to warrant a court martial (which no one enjoys) . ”

“ For martial law, which is built upon no settled principles, but is entirely arbitrary in its decisions, is, as Sir Matthew Hale observes, in truth and reality no law, but something indulged, rather than allowed as a law. The necessity of order and discipline in an army is the only thing which can give it countenance ”

“ Then we said, when considering a habeas corpus for release from military imprisonment after trial by court-martial of a person claiming civilian status:
'We have no doubt of the power of Congress to enlist the manpower of the nation for prosecution of the war and to subject to military jurisdiction those who are unwilling, as well as those who are eager, to come to the defense of their nation in its hour of peril. ”

“ As a corollary to the preceding, it is a well-established rule of international law, that the surrendered party can be tried only on the allegations for which extradition has been accorded. This principle is also generally recognized among the states.
HOW A COURT MARTIAL IS CONDUCTED. A court martial is "a court consisting of military or naval officers, for the trial of offenses against military or naval laws."
Courts martial are of three classes, general, garrison, and regimental. General courts martial consists of from five to thirteen officers, appointed by a general or by the president. ”

“ It does not appear to have ever been the law of England that a peace officer or a private citizen could as such, and without any warrant or order either from a civil magistrate or from a military officer, lawfully arrest a deserter for the purpose of delivering him to the military authorities for trial by court-martial.
In the United States, the line between civil and military jurisdiction has always been maintained. ”

“ Enemy combatants are not included among them. Articles 12, 13 and 14, before the adoption of Article 15 in 1916, 39 Stat. 653 made all 'persons subject to military law' amenable to trial by courts-martial for any offense made punishable by the Articles of War. Article 12 makes triable by general court martial 'any other person who by the law of war is (triable) by military tribunals.' Since Article 2, in its 1916 form, 39 Stat. ”

“ Conceding to military personnel that high degree of honesty and sense of justice which nearly all of them undoubtedly have, the members of a court-martial, in the nature of things, do not and cannot have the independence of jurors drawn from the general public or of civilian judges. ”

“ In the impossible event of an ultimate capitulation we shall hang our swords and our muskets over our fire-places, and say to our grandchildren, "I, too, was one of the defenders of Paris." In the meantime, soldiers who have run away when attacked are paraded through the streets with a placard on their breasts, requesting all good citizens to spit upon them. Two courts-martial have been established to judge spies and marauders, and in each of the nine sections there is a court-martial to sit upon peccant National Guards. ”

“ Thirdly, That the Exercise of Martial Law, whereby any Person should lose his Life or Member, or Liberty, may not be permitted in Time of Peace, when the Kings Courts are open for all Persons to receive Justice, according to the Laws of the Land. ”

“ Congress in this 1863 Act plainly recognized that there was a significant difference between court-martial power to try men in the service and to try former service men after their discharge. The Government correctly argues that the attention of the 1863 Congress was not focused on the precise question here, namely, the extent of a military court's statutory power to punish a man presently 'in the service' for an offense committed in a prior enlistment period from which he has been discharged. ”

“ A general who allows himself to be beaten in an extended mountain position deserves to be brought before a court martial. ”

“ Word would be sure to get back to the police of his own province, he insisted, and he would be manhandled worse than ever when he went home. True, gendarmes who misbehave are sometimes court-martialed, which sounds to the average civilian like something dreadful, but those of us with a little military experience know how often a court martial is a synonym for a whitewashing, unless it is the sacred army itself which has been wronged. ”

“ The Appeal Court shall have the power, on quashing a conviction, to make an order authorising the appellant to be retried by court-martial, but shall only exercise this power when the appeal against conviction is allowed by reason only of evidence received or available to be received by the Court under sections 28 to 30 of this Act and it appears to the Court that the interests of justice require that an order under this section should be made. ”

“ Tactical situations of an army in the field have been held to justify the withdrawal of a court-martial proceeding and the institution of another one in calmer days. Wade v. Hunter, 336 U.S. 684, 69 S.Ct. ”

“ A feeling of intense hostility against the government of the Union prevailed, as before, with the people, which was ready to break out into insurrection upon the appearance of the enemy in force, or upon the withdrawal of our troops. The country was under martial law; and its armed occupation gave no jurisdiction to the civil tribunals over the officers and soldiers of the occupying army. ”

“ For we conclude that, even if we assume, arguendo, that a collateral attack on a court-martial judgment may be made in the Court of Claims throguh a back-pay suit alleging a 'constitutional' defect in the military decision, these present cases on their facts do not rise to that level. ”

“ Quite aside from any conceivable motive actuating the Master-at-arms, and irrespective of the provocation to the blow, a martial court must needs in the present case confine its attention to the blow's consequence, which consequence justly is to be deemed not otherwise than as the striker's deed. ”

“ The Supreme Court shall have final appellate jurisdiction over the military tribunals. Military trials under an extraordinary state of martial law may be limited to original jurisdiction only in cases of crimes of soldiers and civilian employees of the armed forces, in cases of espionage on military affairs, and crimes as defined by law in regard to sentinels, sentry-posts, supplying of harmful food, and prisoners of war. ”