United States v. Murphy

I

In United States v. Deain, 5 U.S.C.M.A. 44, 17 C.M.R. 44 (1954), this Court invalidated an arrangement whereunder a Navy Admiral served as permanent president of a general court-martial and submitted to the convening authority fitness reports on two other members of the court-martial. Although we expressed doubt that the impartiality of a court-martial member would be negated simply because one was “the normal reporting senior of the other,” id. at 52, 17 C.M.R. at 52, we concluded that, under the circumstances, the “freedom and independence of action” of the two members had been unduly…