Word: martialled
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Years Ahead. As it tried to bal ance service requirements against civilian complaints, Congress came to the conclusion that military autocracy had indeed gone too far. Investigators found widespread abuse of "command control" -the power of local commanders to convene courts-martial, appoint court members and review court verdicts. The record showed that all too many commanders had been using military courts as personal disciplinary weapons, ignoring even such bedrock rights as the presumption of innocence until guilt is proved beyond reasonable doubt. As one ex-Navy lawyer recalls: "The general attitude seemed to be that a man was going...
Congress enacted the code in 1950 in response to complaints about "drumhead justice" during World War II, when the number of courts-martial hit 750,000 a year. In one sense, the complaints were no surprise; civilian soldiers, whether draftees or volunteers, have made known their distaste for military rules in every U.S. war since the Revolution. But Congress was also aware of the professional soldier's compelling argument that autocracy is a military necessity. As General William Tecumseh Sherman warned in 1879: "An army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change...
...niceties have moved the services to demand and get more authority for handling minor offenses by meting out punishment without trial-for example, up to seven days in the brig and three days on bread and water. Beyond this, however, the accused is entitled to three kinds of courts-martial, basically ranked according to punishment power...
...SUMMARY COURTS-MARTIAL deal only with enlisted men, consist of one officer who acts as judge and jury. Maximum penalties: one month's confinement, 45 days' hard labor, forfeiture of two-thirds of one month...
...SPECIAL COURTS-MARTIAL nearly always deal with enlisted men, have a president (senior officer present), a trial counsel (prosecutor) and defense counsel. Neither counsel need be a lawyer, but if the former is, the latter must be. Maximum penalties upon conviction: six months' confinement at hard labor and a bad-conduct discharge, which is theoretically less serious than a dishonorable discharge...