Revisiting United States v. Allen: Applying Civilian Pretrial Confinement Credit for Unrelated Offenses Against Court-Martial Sentences to Post-Trial Confinement Under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b)(2)

摘要

Administrative sentence credit for pretrial confinement is a relatively modern concept in military law. Before the Court of Military Appeals (CMA) issued its 1984 opinion in United States v. Allen, military accused were not automatically entitled to credit for the time they lawfully spent in jail awaiting their trials by court-martial. Unlike in the federal civilian system, where "credit for lawful pretrial detention is regarded as a matter 'of legislative grace[,] and not a [C]onstitutional guarantee,'" neither the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) nor the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM) provide for credit for lawful pretrial confinement.