
    UNITED STATES, Appellee v JOHN L. WILLIAMSON, Corporal, U. S. Marine Corps, Appellant
    8 USCMA 495, 24 CMR 305
    No. 10,398
    Decided December 13, 1957
    
      Commander Charles Timblin, USN, was on the brief for Appellant, Accused.
    
      Lieutenant Colonel Charles H. Beale, Jr., USMC, was on the brief for Appellee, United States.
   Opinion of the Court

Homer FERGUSON, Judge:

The unauthorized absence of the accused- from his unit for a period of seven months resulted in his trial by general court-martial, in which he was found guilty of desertion, in violation of Article 85, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 885. The conviction must be reversed for the reasons stated in United States v Cothern, 8 USCMA 158, 23 CMR 382, and United States v Soccio, 8 USCMA 477, 24 CMR 287. The record is returned to The Judge Advocate General of the Navy for reference to a board of review. The board, in its discretion, may affirm the lesser offense of absence without leave and reassess the sentence, or it may order a rehearing on the desertion charge.

Chief Judge Quinn concurs.

Latimer, Judge

(dissenting):

I dissent for the reasons set forth in my separate opinion in United States v Soccio, 8 USCMA 477, 24 CMR 287.  