The USS Wyoming Dirty Dozen

One disclaimer, I don’t know if all of the accused were on the uses Wyoming, with that being said:

Allegedly, on board the USS Wyoming (SSBN 742), 12 sailors are charged with filming female submariners in various state of undress while getting into and out of the shower and viewing and distribution of the videos (without reporting these videos to the chain of command).

This week, there was an Article 32 hearing for the several sailors according to the Navy Region Southeast Docket.

For the people that don’t understand the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the following is a brief breakdown of military law (from a USN stand point, but the other branches of service will almost be identical, only the terms will change):

1.       To be tried, one must be accused of an offense and be placed on report.

2.       A Report Chit will be filled out.

3.       A Primary (or Preliminary) Investigating Officer will do a preliminary investigation and depending on the nature of the offense, will recommend:

          a.       No Punitive Action Necessary or Desirable;

b.         Dispose of Case at Mast (NJP, or Non-Judicial Punishment); or

c.         Refer To Court Martial for Trial of Attached Charges

Most commands will try to resolve the case at the lowest level (NJP) due to the fact that the punishment and sentence is listed in the unit punishment book, which is a log of offenses, offenders and punishment, and a Court Martial is the most severe form of Military Justice and is a black mark on the command.

Now for the levels of punishment.

The lowest level is NJP or Non-Judicial Punishment which is basically “You fucked up and we are going to pound you”.  But you don’t end up with a criminal record.  Reserved for the most minor transgressions of the UCMJ.  Typically what you would expect for misdemeanor violations of the law such as:

1.       Writing bad checks (not maliciously)

2.       Unauthorized Absence

3.       DUI

4.       Failure to obey a lawful order

5.       Etc., typically minor transgression.

Typically the maximum punishment is reduction of paygrade (by one paygrade, up to a certain level, restriction to the confines of the command for up to 60 days, and a forfeiture of up to ½ month’s pay for up to 2 months.  The punishment depends on the Commanding Officers (or Officer In Charge, or OIC’s) rank.

The next level of punishment is handled by a Court Martial, which there is basically three levels:

Summary Court Martial;

Special Court Martial; and

General Court Martial.

To sum up Wikipedia, the differences are in the punishments.

A Summary court martial is used for relatively minor offense and can imposed the maximum punishment of:

The maximum punishment at a summary court-martial varies with the accused's paygrade. If the accused is in the pay grade of E-4 or below, he or she can be sentenced to 30 days of confinement, reduction to pay grade E-1, or restriction for 60 days. Punishments for service members in paygrades E-5 and higher (e.g., Sergeant in the Army or Marines, Petty Officer 2nd Class in the Navy) are similar, except that they can only be reduced one paygrade and cannot be confined.

Special Court Martial:

A special court-martial is the intermediate court level. It consists of a military judge, trial counsel (prosecutor), defense counsel, and a minimum of three officers sitting as a panel of court members or jury. An enlisted accused may request a court composed of at least one-third enlisted personnel. An accused may also request trial by judge alone. Regardless of the offenses involved, a special court-martial sentence is limited to no more than forfeiture of two-thirds basic pay per month for one year, and additionally for enlisted personnel, one year confinement (or a lesser amount if the offenses have a lower maximum), and/or a bad-conduct discharge.

General Court Martial:

A general court-martial is the highest court level. It consists of a military judge, trial counsel (prosecutor), defense counsel, and a minimum of five officers sitting as a panel of court-martial members. An enlisted accused may request a court composed of at least one-third enlisted personnel. An accused may also request trial by judge alone. In a general court-martial, the maximum punishment is that set for each offense under the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM), and may include death (for certain offenses), confinement, a dishonorable or bad conduct discharge for enlisted personnel, a dismissal for officers, or a number of other forms of punishment. A general court-martial is the only forum that may adjudge a sentence to death. Before a case goes to a general court-martial, a pretrial investigation under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice must be conducted, unless waived by the accused.

For the above, an Article 32 Hearing is a pretrial hearing which might be an arraignment, or presentation of motions.

Some of the significant differences between civilian and military courts is as follows

1.       Military courts a typically officers (unless the accused is enlisted, and then he can have up to 1/3 of the panel (jury) enlisted).

2.       Except in death penalty cases, a unanimous panel of finding of guilt is not required.

3.       The panel determines the punishment and the judge agrees or modifies the punishment.

4.       The results of a Guilty Verdict will result in loosing benefits and can be considered a Felony conviction.

5.       A Dishonorable Discharge will result in the loss of rights (2^nd, 15^th. etc.).

Back to the dirty dozen.

The have brought shame upon the US Submarine force and deserve their day in court.  If any of them are innocent, the court will find in their favor.

If any of them are guilty of the alleged charges, the court will also convict and punish accordingly.

If they had committed the same acts as a civilian, there would be no less nor greater burden of proof, nor punishment if convicted.  The only difference, is that the military panel recommends the punishment vice the civilian judge.