Can You Be Tried For The Same Offense In Civilian And Military Court?

Question

Some criminal misdeeds committed by the troops fall into gray areas that both the civilian and military courts can put the accused on trial.

If one is acquitted in military court does that mean they are free from prosecution in civilian court, and vice versa?

Answer 1

NO! And an individual can be tried for drug infractions and other crimes separately  from both State and Federal authorities for essentially the same conduct...

Answer 2

It depends on whether the two courts are organs of the same sovereign or different sovereigns. If the Civilian Court is also an organ of the United States Federal Government, then no. A sovereign may not try you twice for the same underlying conduct. (Under the US Constitution. Other countries may not follow this rule.)

If the Civilian Court is a State government or part of some other country's government, then yes -- each sovereign has a chance to enforce its own laws. If the same conduct offends the laws of multiple sovereigns, each one can try you for that conduct. (Assuming they can get custody of you, of course.)

There is, at least theoretically, one exception. If one sovereign acts on request of the other, the prosecution may be considered a sham prosecution. The Supreme Court mentioned once briefly that this wasn't the case and that therefore the two prosecutions didn't violate double jeopardy, which suggests that if this was the case, it might.

So if, say, Georgia tries you and loses, and then they push the Federal Government to try you in a Military Court, that might not be allowed. But if each sovereign acts independently, you are out of luck.

Imagine if it wasn't this way. I spy for Russia. I get caught. So I have Russia try me for spying for them. They find me not guilty. Now the US can't try me. Does that make any sense? Clearly not.

This same thing happened in the American South. People would commit violent hate crimes against blacks and be quickly found 'not guilty' in a sham trial with a jury of local racists (heck, the Sheriff was the local KKK leader). We still needed to try these guys for violating Federal civil rights laws.

The most common case would be a soldier tried for rape, battery, public intoxication, or the like. In these cases, they'd be charged and tried by the local government. So the Federal government would still get its own shot.

Note also that non-judicial punishment does not usually prevent judicial punishment. (For example, the IRS can fine you for underpaying taxes, and the Federal government can still prosecute you for the same thing.) I mostly point that out to be complete, though your question clearly asked about being tried in two courts.

Answer 3

Yes you can in the Australian military.

In 1998 the Military did away with the old code of conduct book and the queens regulations and bought in the JDSA which was a more updated version of the law.

If you are a military person and commit an offence in a civilian situation you can be charged and dealt with by both Jurisdictions.

My son is a sailor in the RAN and got into a fight with a civilian and put the guy in hospital, both were drunk and out on the town looking for some action.

My son was arrested and charged by the police he was arraigned and appeared in court where he was fined and ordered to pay medical costs and got a suspended sentence.

When he had been arrested and charged by the police they called the coxswain who came with some Military police took him back to his ship and charged him with conduct unbecoming and drunk and disorderly , he got  two weeks extra duties (chooks), stopped pay and denied promotion for 1 year.

In relation to getting off in one jurisdiction , it could happen but both systems operate separately and the standard of behavior applied in the military is usually higher than the civilian code, so getting off in Civilian court does not exclude the military having a go as well.

Generally the fact that you got yourself in trouble with the  civil law would be sufficient to bring a charge of "conduct unbecoming" regardless of if you were found innocent or not.

Answer 4

as far as i know, and i might be wrong, you can be tried in both courts. cuz regulations vary depending on the situation. if the soldier in question, committed the crime in civilian time or in a city, definitely. but if it was on a post, i don't see why civilian court would even be involved. but then again i'm no lawyer