Interesting ACCA opinon

ACCA released on interesting little opinion today. In United States v. Bonner, __ M.J. ___, No. ARMY 20040196 (A. Ct. Crim. App. 20 March 2007), the court held that where a convening authority sets aside a finding as a matter of clemency, he is under no obligation to provide any accompanying sentence relief and a staff judge advocate need not advise the CA to perform a Sales-type sentence reassessment. Rather, all that is necessary is that the CA must "determine the sentence remains appropriate in light of the disapproved findings." Id., slip op. at 5.

ACCA slips in a service split in a footnote, id., slip op. at 3-4 n.2, but the disagreement is pure dicta. ACCA rejects the Coast Guard Court's conclusion that an SJA must advise the CA about the standard for sentence reassessment in cases of possible legal error. Id. (citing United States v. Meek, 58 M.J. 579 (C.G. Ct. Crim. App. 2003)). But ACCA had already noted that it found "no evidence of a determination of possible legal error by the SJA in this case, nor do we see any basis that would support such a determination." Bonner, slip op. at 3 n.1. So ACCA's gratuitous shot at Meek, right or wrong, shouldn't become the basis for a CAAF grant to resolve the service split, since any resolution of that point would be purely advisory (as was ACCA's resolution of that point in Bonner).