United States v. Davis

Opinion of the Court

Homer Ferguson, Judge:

In this special court-martial case— tried by nonlawyers — the accused was convicted of larceny and sentenced to be reduced to the rate of seaman recruit, and to be discharged from the service with a bad-conduct discharge. We granted review to determine whether the trial counsel’s references to SECNAV instruction 5815.2A and paragraph 33h, Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1951, were prej-udical.

This case may be distinguished from the cases of United States v Fowle, 7

USCMA 349, 22 CMR 139; United States v Estrada, 7 USCMA 635, 23 CMR 99; and…