United States v. Beard

Opinion of the Court

Convicted of two offenses in violation of Uniform Code of Military Justice, the punishment for which included a bad-conduct discharge only as a permissible additional penalty, the accused was nevertheless sentenced to bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of $64.00 per month for three months, and confinement at hard labor for three months. Intermediate appellate authorities approved and, before the board of review, accused asserted as prejudicial error the failure of the president to instruct on the basis for the inclusion of the punitive discharge in the maximum sentence. The…