United States v. Lay

In this case, the trial judge neglected to fulfill his responsibility, imposed by the Court of Military Appeals, “for assuring on the record that an accused understands the meaning and effect of each condition .. . [of] any existing pretrial agreement.”1 That is, the judge neglected this obligation unless it is sufficient that the agreement has been reduced to writing and the accused has professed to have read and understood the whole of it.2

*686The Court of Military Appeals may have departed from its former standard of literal compliance with Green’s mandate, at least with respect to the…