Overview of Georgia's Military Criminal Justice System
Except for the United States Coast Guard, every branch of the United States military possesses personnel and bases within the State of Georgia: Fort Benning, Fort Gillem, Fort Gordon, Fort McPherson, Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield, and Lawson Army Airfield for the United States Army; the Atlanta Naval Air Station and King's Bay Naval Submarine Base for the United States Navy; the Albany Marine Corps Logistics Base for the United States Marine Corps; and Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Moody Air Force Base and Robins Air Force Base for the United States Air Force. Although the vast majority of servicemen and women serve their country dutifully, honorably and without any mark whatsoever on their record, occasionally military personnel do become involved in criminal activity, and the United States armed services have a well established justice system to deal with such activity.
Firstly, each armed services branch has its own military police force, the Military Police Corps for the Army, the Master-at-Arms for the Navy, the Provost Marshal’s Office for the Marines and the Air Force Security Forces (there also are separate United States Department of Defense police forces for each branch, which are concerned with security). Each service further has its own department for criminal investigations: the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI). The Army CID 3rd MP Group and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory are based at Fort Gillem, and Air Force OSI maintains units at all Georgia Air Force bases.
If an investigation indicates criminal conduct by a serviceman or woman, a court martial is convened by a commanding authority at the facility where the serviceman or woman is located. Court martial proceedings are adversarial proceedings, similar to federal criminal cases, and a serviceman or woman may be represented by counsel, present evidence and confront witnesses. Courts martial are Article I, or legislative, as opposed to Article III, courts.
There are three types of courts martial: summary court martial, for minor charges, in which a member of the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for the particular military branch acts as both prosecutor and defense counsel; special court martial, for offenses not resulting in a sentence of confinement of more than 1 year, which involves a military judge, prosecutor and a panel of at least three officers or enlisted personnel who serve as a jury; and general court martial for serious crimes carrying severe punishment, including the death penalty, with a judge, prosecutor and panel (military servicemen and women are not included within the Sixth Amendment’s right to jury trial by longstanding practice). A serviceman or woman is entitled to be represented by counsel in any court martial proceeding, and can obtain free appointed counsel, or may retain civilian counsel. The defense may further challenge the makeup of a court martial panel, and request that up to one-third of the panel be composed of enlisted personnel, as opposed to officers. Court martial proceedings are governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ); the Manual for Courts-Martial, which expands upon the UCMJ, and the Military Rules of Evidence.
A serviceman or woman may appeal an adjudication of guilt or sentence to an intermediate military appellate court, including the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeal and the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. Adverse decisions from these intermediate appellate courts may be further appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, and the United States Supreme Court. Subjects of courts martial proceedings have also increasingly sought relief from United States district courts.
