Kirkman v. McClaughry

Citations

• 160 F. 436
• 90 C.C.A. 86
• 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4207

Syllabus

<p>1. Army and Navy — Courts-Martial—Customary Military Law, Rather than Common Law, Controls their Proceedings.</p> <p>In the absence of a regulatory statute, the proceedings of courts-martial are controlled by the usages and customs of the military service, otherwise called customary military law, and not by the common-law rules applicable to the proceedings of civil tribunals.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 4, Army and Navy, §§ ■■89-93.]</p> <p>2. Same — Different Sentences Against Same Offender Regarded as Cumulative and Executed Consecutively.</p> <p>The customary military law and the army regulations unite in requiring that different sentences to imprisonment imposed by courts-martial upon the same offender be regarded as cumulative and be executed consecutively, one upon the expiration oí another in the order of their imposition.</p> <p>3. Same — Army Regulations — Paragraph 981 Construed — '“Soldiebs.”</p> <p>In paragraph 981 of the Army Regulations, which reads, “When soldiers awaiting result of trial or undergoing sentence commit offenses for which they are tried, the second sentence will be executed upon the expiration of the first,” the word “soldiers” is used in its popular sense, and embraces officers as well as enlisted men.</p> <p>LKd. Note. — For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, vol. 7, p. 6543.]</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>