Sunday reading

District Court for the District of Columbia

“LADARION D. STANTON Petitioner, v. JAMES A. JACOBSON Major General, U.S. Air Force, UNITED STATES, et al., Respondents” Stanton v. Jacobson, Civil Case No. 19-699 (RJL), (D.D.C. Apr. 3, 2020).

Petitioner Ladarion Stanton ("Stanton" or "petitioner"), a former airman in the United States Air Force, seeks collateral review of his conviction for petty larceny and the punishment of "no sentence" imposed by the military justice system. Respondent Major James Jacobson ("Jacobson") was the "Convening Authority" of Stanton's general court-martial and imposed the sentence on Stanton after his case wended its way through the military appeals process. (The other respondent is the United States.) The gravamen  of Stanton's petition is that, after his earlier convictions on several unrelated charges were overturned and remanded to Jacobson for retrial and resentencing, Jacobson accepted Stanton's offer to resolve his case via a "discharge in lieu of court-martial." Stanton believed this resolution would not only result in vacating the charges overturned on appeal but also the charge of larceny, to which he had already pled guilty and which had already been affirmed. Stanton also believed the discharge would leave the military without any jurisdiction over him. Although respondents acknowledge, as an administrative matter, that Stanton was discharged when Jacobson accepted Stanton's discharge in lieu of court-martial, they nonetheless contend that this discharge had no effect on Stanton's larceny conviction. Indeed, they insist that the military has retained jurisdiction over Stanton's court-martial. The parties' cross-motions for summary judgment are now ripe. After extensive briefing and with the benefit of oral argument, I have concluded that Stanton's larceny conviction did survive his administrative discharge. Therefore, I GRANT respondents' motion for summary judgment, DENY petitioner's motion for summary judgment, and DISMISS petitioner's petition for habeas corpus. ​