Available 24/7
Click to Call Now
1-888-919-UCMJ (8265)

Blog

How Many Panel Members Will There Be?

Posted by Ernesto Gapasin | Apr 14, 2019 | 0 Comments

That depends on the type of Court-Martial in which the charges against you have been preferred. The passing of new amendments to the UCMJ which are contained in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has led to sweeping changes in some areas of the court-martial trial process. In other areas, only relatively minor changes have taken place.

One area where change occurred which we at GCW consider to be somewhat major is in the number of court-martial members. The number of members sitting on the panel will depend on the kind of courts-martial which the Convening Authority prefers. Congress completely rewrote Article 16 to establish standard panel sizes. There are still three kinds of courts-martial. The three kinds are General, Special, and Summary. There are three types of General courts-martial: a military judge and 8 court members; a military judge alone; and, in a capital case, a military judge and 12 court members. All Special courts-martial must now have a military judge detailed. There are two types of Special courts-martial: a military judge and 4 court members; or a military judge alone. Included in this last type is a Special court-martial with no right to trial by court members. This Special court-martial, however, is subject to limitations to the maximum punishment as outlined in Article 19 and other limitations that the President may prescribe. The Summary court-martial still consists of a commissioned officer, and its non-criminal nature is addressed in Article 20.

About the Author

Ernesto Gapasin

Attorney

Comments

There are no comments for this post. Be the first and Add your Comment below.

Leave a Comment

Menu