United States v. Brooks

Opinion of the Court

During the instructional phase of appellant’s general court-martial1 before a panel of officer members, the military judge instructed the court in accordance with the standard military reasonable doubt instructions contained in paragraphs 2-4, Department of the Army Pamphlet 27-9, Military Judges’ Guide (May 19, 1969). At trial the defense counsel objected with extensive specificity to the equation of reasonable and substantial doubt and he offered, unsuccessfully, alternative instructions. We have granted this case to consider the accused’s continued assertion of this…