United States v. Barfield

Opinion of the Court

Darden, Chief Judge:

The question involved in this case is whether the military judge prejudi-cially erred by denying the accused a brief continuance to secure the attendance of a witness in mitigation and extenuation.

Private First Class Leonard W. Bar-field pleaded guilty to a charge of committing a lewd and lascivious act on the body of a 5-year-old child and was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge and confinement at hard labor for 3 years. The term of confinement has since been reduced to 15 months, but the sentence has otherwise been affirmed.

After the accused’s plea…