Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 62 Part 1.djvu/661

 62 STAT.] 80TH CONG., 2D SESS.-CH. 625--JUNE 24, 1948 through process issued by the trial judge advocate, in the same manner as witnesses for the prosecution." SEC. 214. Article 24 is amended to read as follows: "ART. 24. COMPULSORY SELr-I'CRImINATION PROHIBITED. -NO wit- ness before a military court, commission, court of inquiry, or board, or before any officer conducting an investigation, or before any officer, military or civil, designated to take a deposition to be read in evidence before a military court, commission, court of inquiry, or board, or before an officer conducting an investigation, shall be compelled to incriminate himself or to answer any question the answer to which may tend to incriminate him or to answer any question not material to the issue or when such answer might tend to degrade him. "The use of coercion or unlawful influence in any manner whatsoever by any person to obtain any statement, admission or confession from any accused person or witness, shall be deemed to be conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, and no such state- ment, admission, or confession shall be received in evidence by any court-martial. It shall be the duty of any person in obtaining any statement from an accused to advise him that he does not have to make any statement at all regarding the offense of which he is accused or being investigated, and that any statement by the accused may be used as evidence against him in a trial by court-martial." SEc. 215. Article 25 is amended to read as follows: "ART. 25. DEPOSITIONS-WHEN ADMISSIBLE.-A duly authenticated deposition taken upon reasonable notice to the opposite party may be read in evidence before any military court or commission in any case not capital, or in any proceeding before a court of inquiry or a military board, if such deposition be taken when the witness resides, is found, or is about to go beyond the State, Territory, or district in which the court, commission, or board is ordered to sit, or beyond the distance of one hundred miles from the place of trial or hearing, or when it appears to the satisfaction of the court, commission, board, or appoint- ing authority that the witness, by reason of age, sickness, bodily infirmity, imprisonment, or other reasonable cause, is unable to, or, in foreign places, because of nonamenability to process, refuses to, appear and testify in person at the place of trial or hearing: Provided, That testimony by deposition may be adduced for the defense in capital cases: Providedfurther, Tlat a deposition may be read in evidence in any case in which the death penalty is authorized by law but is not mandatory, whenever the appointing authority shall have directed that the case be treated as not capital, and in such a case a sentence of death may not be adjudged by the court-martial: And provided further, That at any time after charges have been signed as provided in article 46, and before the charges have been referred for trial, any authority competent to appoint a court-martial for the trial of such charges may designate officers to represent the prosecution and the defense and may authorize such officers, upon due notice, to take the deposition of any witness, and such deposition may subsequently be received in evidence as in other cases." SEC. 216. Article 31 is amended to read as follows: "ART. 31. METHOD OF VOTING.-Voting by members of a general or special court-martial upon questions of challenge, on the fnindings, and on the sentence shall be by secret written ballot. The junior member of the court shall in each case count the votes, which count shall be checked by the president, who shall forthwith announce the result of the ballot to the members of the court. The law member of a general court-martial or the president of a special court-martial, shall rule in open court upon interlocutory questions, other than challenge, arising during the proceedings: Provided, That unless such ruling be made by the law member of a general court-martial, if any mem- 631 41 Stat. 792. 10C.S.C.§1495. Use of coercion, etc. 41 Stat. 792. 10 U. S. C.§ 1496. Capital cases. Designation of of- ficers. Post, p. 633. 41 Stat. 793. 10 U. S. C. 1502. Interlocutory ques- tions. Decision by major- ity vote.

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