United States v. Weatherford

I dissent.

I do not believe that there is ever an “appropriate case” where a defense counsel may urge the court to impose a punitive discharge upon his client, even when the argument is designed to persuade the court not to sentence the accused to a period of confinement. As my brothers note, the punitive discharge is not just an opprobrious form of separation from the armed forces. Not only is it the equivalent of a death sentence, insofar as it deals with the serviceman’s relationship to the military community (United States v Prow, 13 USCMA 63, 32 CMR 63 (1962)), but it has many and…