United States v. Smith

REED, Senior Judge:

This case originally came before us as a merit submission, the appellant alleging no error in the court-martial proceedings. However, our examination of the record showed that, although the appellant had asked to be tried by officer members (record at 5), the military judge acted as the sentencing authority after accepting the appellant’s guilty pleas. There was never a request on the record, either orally or in writing, by the appellant for trial by judge alone. We subsequently ordered the Government to show cause why the findings and sentence should not be set aside since…