Chapter XVII.
Courts-martial--Records

General Court-Martial--Special and Summary Court-Martial

85. COURTS-MARTIAL--RECORDS--General Court-Martial.

    1. General and miscellaneous.--Each general court-martial shall keep a separate record of its proceedings in the trial of each case brought before it. (A.W. 33.)

       The record is prepared by the trial judge advocate under the direction of the court, but the court as a whole is responsible for it. It is immaterial to the sufficiency of a record whether the same was kept or written by the trial judge advocate or by a clerk or a reporter acting under his direction. The trial judge advocate will preserve or cause to be preserved any notes, stenographic or other, from which the record of trial is prepared. These notes may be destroyed after final disposition of the case under A.W. 48, 50¹/2, or 51.

       The record of the proceedings in each case should be separate, complete, and independent in itself both in form and in substance.

    2. Contents; appendages; authentication; loss.--The record must show all the essential jurisdictional facts, and will set forth a complete history of the proceedings had in open court in a case, and all the material conclusions arrived at in both open and closed sessions. For details of contents and certain exceptions to the foregoing general rule, see App. 6. When a record is amended in revision proceedings, the record of proceedings in revision will show specifically, ordinarily by page and line, the part of the original record that is changed and the change made. In a case where special pleas are sustained to all charges and specifications, or trial for other reasons does not terminate in the usual way, the record will show the proceedings as far as they went.

       Accompanying the record and securely bound together will be the original charge sheet and, if not used as exhibits or otherwise properly disposed of, the other papers which accompanied the charges when referred for trial, including, where the trial was a rehearing of the case, the record of the prior hearing or hearings.

       Recommendations and other papers relative to clemency will be bound into the record immediately after the exhibits. Similar action

will be taken with respect to documents marked for identification and not admitted in evidence. If the findings and sentence were not announced, the trial judge advocate or assistant trial judge advocate, or member, as the case may be, will certify after the signatures to the record that he personally recorded such findings and sentence. A copy of the reporter's voucher will be attached to the record, also any copy of the record not otherwise disposed of, and a receipt for or (if not practicable to obtain s receipt) a certificate of delivery of each copy furnished under 41e.

As to authenticating record, see A.W. 33 and App. 6.

When prior to action by the reviewing authority a record of trial is lost or destroyed, a new record will, if practicable, be prepared and will become the record of trial in the case. Such new record will, however, only be prepared when the extant original notes or other sources are such as to enable the preparation of a complete and accurate record of the case. In any case of loss of a record the trial judge advocate or other proper person will fully inform the appointing authority as to the facts and as to the action, if any, taken.

3. Disposition.--The original record and accompanying papers with proper letter of transmittal and W.D., A.G.O. Form No. 96 (G.C.M. data sheet), properly filled out, will be sent by the trial judge advocate directly to the appointing authority or to his successor, or, in the case of a court appointed by the President, to The Judge Advocate General of the Army. (See A.W. 35.)
86. COURTS-MARTIAL--RECORDS--Special and Summary Courts-Martial.--Except as otherwise indicated in the form for record of trial by special court-martial (App. 7) or elsewhere, the requirements of 85 are in general applicable to records of special courts-martial. As to records of summary courts-martial, see App. 8.

    At the conclusion of the trial of each case a summary court will record and sign its findings and the acquittal or sentence as indicated by the form and will transmit the record of trial and any papers received with the charges or as evidence without letter of transmittal to the appointing authority or his successor. Where the summary court is the only officer present with the command, the record will so state, and such officer thereafter holds the record as transmitted to himself as reviewing authority.

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