United States v. Briggs

Summary

**Topics:** Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ); statute of limitations; "punishable by death" interpretation; military rape prosecutions; Eighth Amendment (Coker v. Georgia); Article 43(a); Article 120(a); Article 55. **Holding:** The Supreme Court held that the phrase "punishable by death" in UCMJ Article 43(a) refers to punishment authorized by the UCMJ's penalty provisions, not to whether the death penalty is constitutionally permissible under the Eighth Amendment. Therefore, prosecutions for rape under the UCMJ during the period when Article 120(a) authorized death for rape were subject to no statute of limitations, even after *Coker v. Georgia* held the Eighth Amendment forbids executing rapists of adult women. The Court reversed the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, emphasizing that statutes of limitations require clarity and that Congress intended the UCMJ's internal penalty scheme to define the limitations period.

Holdings

1. The phrase 'punishable by death' in Article 43(a) is a term of art that is defined by the provisions of the UCMJ specifying the punishments for the offenses it outlaws. Therefore, because Article 120(a) provided that rape could be punished by death, the prosecution for rape could be brought at any time without limitation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a prosecution for a rape committed during the period from 1986 to 2006 had to be commenced within five years of the commission of the charged offense or could be brought at any time.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded