Chapter 19.
Court-Martial Orders

143. PUBLISHING RESULT OF TRIAL. A court-martial order setting out the result of the trial and the reviewing authority's final action thereon must be published in every case tried by a general or special court-martial (par. 87d, MCM; AR 310-50, 1 December 1944). The requirement applies whether the accused has been found guilty or acquitted. The order in cases tried by a general court-martial will be designated a General Court-Martial Order; in cases tried by a special court-martial it will be designated a Special Court-Martial Order. No order is published in cases tried by summary court-martial, as there is no such thing as a "Summary Court-Martial Order."

144. PREPARATION. Since the court-martial order is an official record of the results of the trial and of the punishment that has been imposed, its careful preparation is a matter of great importance. It is the authority under which a prison officer keeps an accused in confinement and a finance officer withholds the amount of a forfeiture from his pay. It is the basis on which entries of convictions are made in his service record,. It is proof of his innocence if he was acquitted. Even slight mistakes in it may have injurious effects upon the rights of an accused, so it must be complete and scrupulously accurate. General court-martial orders are normally drafted by the staff judge advocate and for that reason matters peculiar to such orders will not be discussed. The preparation of special court-martial orders, however, is the responsibility of the adjutant of the command. He must know what is to be included. A form for a special court-martial order is set out in appendix 11a, p. 278, MCM, and other examples will be found in appendices 26 through 28, this manual. The mistakes which are commonly made in the preparation of such orders are usually due to carelessness and failure to check the record and the order carefully. Attention should be paid to the following matters which are common sources of error in preparing special court-martial orders:

     1. Headquarters. The correct designation of the headquarters of the reviewing authority must be shown. This should be copied from the action sheet.

2. Date. The order, no matter when actually published, will bear the date on which the reviewing authority took final action--i.e., the date will correspond with that on the action sheet. Thus, if on 1 May a regimental commander approved and ordered executed a sentence of a special court-martial, but the adjutant of the regiment did not have the order mimeographed until 3 May, the order would nevertheless be dated 1 May.

3. Numbering. Each special court-martial order issued by an organization is numbered consecutively in a separate series for each calendar year. (See AR 310-50, 1 December 1944.) The last order issued in any calendar year should bear a notation that it is the last of the series for that year, and the first of the next calendar year should bear a notation at the top to the effect that "SCMO No._____ is the last of the series of 194_" (the preceding year). If it is necessary to issue a corrected copy, it will be labeled "Corrected Copy" and be given the same number and date as the order it corrects.

4. Orders appointing the court. The paragraph, number, date and issuing headquarters of the special order which appointed the court and of all amending orders must be stated.

5. Description of accused. The name, organization and serial number of the accused must be accurately set forth and correspond with those appearing on page 1 of the charge sheet. Particular care should be taken to insure that the serial number is stated correctly.

6. Charges and specifications. The charges and specifications must be copied exactly as they appear on the charge sheet, unless they were amended in the course of the trial. If amended, they must be set out as they read after amendment. If a charge or specification was nolle prossed or withdrawn by the appointing authority, it should not be copied in full, but its number should be given followed by the words "Nolle prosequi by order of the appointing authority" or "Withdrawn by order of the appointing authority." (See app. 22, infra.)

7. Pleas. The pleas must be copied exactly from the record. If a plea of guilty was changed to not guilty at any stage of the proceedings, it should be set forth as "Guilty changed to Not Guilty."

8. Findings and sentence. The findings and sentence must be copied exactly as they appear in the record.

9. Previous convictions. If evidence of previous convictions of the accused was considered by the court, that fact must be stated. This statement is et out in parentheses after the statement of the sentence--e.g., "(Two previous convictions considered)." If no evidence of previous convictions was considered, a positive statement to that effect is not required, since if nothing is said it is assumed that there were no such convictions. It is good practice, however, to state specifically "(No previous convictions considered)," if such was the case, because it would

remove any question of the reference to previous convictions having been omitted through inadvertence.
10. Date of sentence of acquittal. The date on which the acquittal was announced or sentence was adjudged must be stated. This date is important since the date on which the sentence was adjudged fixes the time from which the term of confinement begins to run. (See par. 17b, AR 600-375, 17 May 1943.)

11. Action. The reviewing authority's action on the sentence, omitting "In the foregoing case of __________," is copied from the action sheet. Any reprimand imposed by the reviewing authority must be set out in full. (See par. 3a,, AR 310-50, 1 December 1944.)1:43 PM

12. Authentication. The order must be properly authenticated as provided in paragraph 11, AR 310-50, 1 December 1944.

13. Acquittal. A form for a court-martial order in case of an acquittal will be found in appendix 23, infra.

14. Joint and common trials. In the case of a joint trial, a single order is issued, but the findings and sentence as to each accused are separately stated. (See app. 24, infra.) In the case of a common trial, separate orders should be issued for each accused.

15. Rehearing. In the case of a rehearing, neither the original proceedings of the court nor the action of the reviewing authority thereon will be published in the court-martial order (par. 87d, MCM). The order will promulgate only the proceedings on rehearing with the action of the reviewing authority thereon. However, if some of the original charges and specifications were not referred for rehearing, they should be set out in a separate paragraph in the order together with the action of the court and the reviewing authority thereon (par. 87d, MCM). thus, for example, if an accused were convicted on two charges and acquitted on a third charge, and the reviewing authority referred for rehearing the two charges on which he was convicted, and on rehearing he was again convicted on those two charges, the court-martial order should set out not only the court's findings and sentence upon the rehearing and the reviewing authority's action on those two charges, but also the fact that the accused was acquitted on the third charge.
145. DISTRIBUTION. Army regulations do not prescribe the distribution to be made of special court-martial orders beyond the requirement that three copies for each accused be sent to The Adjutant General, Attention: Enlisted Branch, Washington, D.C.; one copy (in trials on charges of desertion only) to the Fiscal Director; and copies to the prison officer of the place where the accused is confined. In addition, two copies should be attached to the record of trial when it is forwarded to the officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction. Although no other distribution is required, it si customary to send a copy to the President, trial judge advocate and defense counsel, to the immediate commanding officer of the

accused and to the finance officer of the organization. An example of the distribution which may be made is set out in appendix 25, infra.
146. COURT-MARTIAL ORDERS REMITTING OR SUSPENDING SENTENCES, OR VACATING SUSPENSIONS. When in a general or special court-martial case it is desired to remit or suspend the balance of a sentence which has been ordered executed, or to vacate a suspension of a sentence (ch. 18, supra), such action is taken by issuing a court-martial order. Forms for such orders in special court-martial cases are set out in appendices 26 though 28, infra. If such action is taken in a case tried by summary court-martial, it must be done in the organization's special orders, not by court-martial order. Appropriate forms for a paragraph in a special order remitting the balance of a sentence imposed by summary court-martial, setting aside such a sentence or vacating a suspension will be found in appendices 29 and 30.

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