United States v. Ludlow

Opinion of the Court

We granted review to determine whether corrective action is required because the trial counsel argued that “an extremely serious and heavy penalty should be . [imposed] primarily to serve as a deterrent to others.” In United States v. Mosely, 1 M.J. 350 (C.M.A. 1976), the Court held that such argument by government counsel was improper. In United States v. Varacalle, 4 M.J. 181 (C.M.A. 1978), the Court concluded that general deterrence of others could be taken into consideration in adjudging a sentence, but it did not reject Mosel/s holding as to the impropriety of trial…