In Tate, the court reverses the Army Court. During the first day of Appellant’s sentencing hearing, the court’s recording device failed, resulting in there being no verbatim transcript for most of the day’s proceedings. Although the Rules for Courts-Martial (R.C.M. or Rules) generally require the record of trial to “include a verbatim transcript of all sessions except sessions closed for deliberations” in serious cases—and impose consequences when that requirement cannot be satisfied—until 2019 the Rules did not authorize any remedial actions that a court could perform to cure a nonverbatim transcript. R.C.M. 1103(b)(2)(B), (f) (2016 ed.). 1 In the absence of any guidance from the Rules, military courts have long authorized three potential solutions when court recording devices fail: (1) declaring a mistrial; (2) reconstructing the record of trial; and (3) starting anew. In this case, the military judge stated that he was going to start Appellant’s sentencing hearing anew, but the record indicates that he neither started anew nor performed one of the other two judicially approved remedies.
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