United States v. Wahnon

OPINION OF THE COURT

At appellant’s trial by special court-martial, he pleaded guilty to a charge of absence without leave in violation of Article 86, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC §886. This plea was accepted and later used by the Government to prove the essential fact that he missed a movement of his ship which was involved in another charge to which he had entered a plea of not guilty.1 Subsequently, the military judge instructed the court-martial that the plea of guilty to the absence offense could be considered in finding this same element, namely, that appellant had missed the…