2024 (October Term)
United States v. Davis, 85 M.J. 295 (the CAAF applies a de novo standard of review when deciding the legal question of whether there was structural error in a given court-martial).
(in making a structural error determination as to alleged improper conduct of two trial judges, the CAAF examines the conduct and rulings of those judges rather than the reasoning of the lower appellate court).
(errors will be deemed structural in nature, thereby requiring no proof of prejudice, only in a very limited class of cases).
(there is a strong presumption that an error is not structural).
(a trial judge's reassignment of a case for an improper purpose is not part of the "limited class" of structural error cases; improper judicial substitutions are tested for prejudice).
(an error is structural only if it affects the entire conduct of the proceeding from beginning to end and renders a criminal trial fundamentally unfair or an unreliable vehicle for determining guilt or innocence).
(in this case, after the chief circuit military judge initially detailed himself to the accused's GCM, his improper detailing of a second military judge prior to the assembly of that court was not a structural error where there was nothing in the record demonstrating that the accused's trial before the second judge was unfair or unreliable).