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7 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 1013 (1998-1999)
Reforming Court-Martial Panel Selection: Why Change Makes Sense for Military Commanders and Military Justice

handle is hein.journals/gmlr7 and id is 1023 raw text is: REFORMING COURT-MARTIAL PANEL SELECTION: WHY CHANGE MAKES SENSE FOR MILITARY COMMANDERS AND MILITARY JUSTICE INTRODUCTION One of the most controversial aspects of the military justice system is the power of convening authorities to select the panel members who serve on military juries.2 Rather than choosing panel members randomly from a representative cross section of the community, convening authorities handpick members of their commands to judge service members accused of crimes.3 Defenders of the military justice system argue that the military administers courts-martial fairly, and that critics just do not understand military justice.4 Recent changes in the British military justice system place this faithful response to the critics in greater doubt, however, and should prompt an examination into whether convening authorities should retain the power to select panel members for courts-martial. The British government recently reformed its entire military justice system5 in response to the European Commission of Human-!Rights' hold- ing in Findlay v. United Kingdom.6 In Findlay,7 the Commission held that 1 Convening authorities are military commanders empowered to convene courts-martial to try service members for suspected crimes. See Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) arts. 22-24, 10 U.S.C. §§ 822-24 (1994). 2 Military juries are commonly called court-martial panels. The Uniform Code of Military Justice vests convening authorities with the power to select those persons whom the convening author- ity thinks are the best qualified for duty as panel members. Using statutorily defined criteria such as age, education, training, experience, length of service, and judicial temperament, convening authorities choose panel members from those eligible within the convening authority's own command. See UCMJ art. 25, 10 U.S.C. § 825 (1994). 3 One might initially assume that the United States' policy guaranteeing litigants in federal courts to a petit jury selected at random from a fair cross section of the community applies to courts- martial. See Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968, 28 U.S.C. § 1861 (1994). This policy, however, does not apply to courts-martial for many sensible reasons. See discussion, infra Part H. The author mentions this difference to inform the reader of this important distinction between federal jury selec- tion and courts-martial panel selection, not to argue that the court martial panel selection should be changed to the method used for federal jury selection. 4 See, e.g., John F. O'Conner, Don't Know Much About History. The Constitution, Historical Practice, and the Death Penalty Jurisdiction of Courts-Martial, 52 U. MIAMI L. REv. 177 (1997); Kevin K. Spradling & Kevin K. Murphy, Capital Punishment, the Constitution, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 32 A.F. L. REV. 414 (1990). 5 The Armed Forces Act of 1996 codified the British govemment's changes to the British military justice system. See Armed Forces Act, 1996, §§ 76-103 (Eng.), reprinted in HALIBURY'S STATUTES OF ENGLAND AND WALES 287-374, vol. 3 (cont.), 4th ed. 1997. 6 Findlay v. United Kingdom, 1995 Y.B. Eur. Cony. on H.R. 186 (Eur. Comm'n on H.R.). confirmed by, 30 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. B) at 263 (1997). 7 Lance Sergeant Alexander Findlay originally appeared before a general court-martial in November 1991. See Findlay, 30 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. B) at 269. The charges against Findlay arose from 19991 1013

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