## Facts

- After a urinalysis indicated illegal drug use by about 40 soldiers, the installation commander ordered a battalion formation of roughly 1,200 soldiers.
- The suspected users, including Sgt. Juan C. Cruz, were called out from the ranks and made to stand before the formation.
- The suspects were brought to a platform where unit crests were removed from their uniforms, and the commander refused to return their salutes.
- In view of the formation, CID agents searched and handcuffed the suspects and transported them for questioning.
- The suspects were later billeted apart from their unit and informally labeled the “Peyote Platoon.”
- Cruz pleaded guilty at court-martial to marijuana possession and distribution and received, pursuant to a pretrial agreement, a sentence including 16 months’ confinement.
- Post-trial, Cruz asserted the commander’s actions constituted unlawful pretrial punishment under Article 13, UCMJ, and claimed the treatment pressured him into the agreement.

## Issues

1. Whether publicly singling out, symbolically degrading, and publicly searching and handcuffing suspected soldiers before trial constituted unlawful pretrial punishment under Article 13, UCMJ.
2. If Article 13 was violated, whether the violation required setting aside Cruz’s guilty plea or instead warranted sentence relief (including confinement credit).

## Decision

- The court held that aspects of the commander’s conduct constituted unlawful pretrial punishment under Article 13 because the measures were stigmatizing and humiliating and exceeded legitimate nonpunitive purposes.
- The court affirmed the findings of guilt and did not invalidate Cruz’s guilty plea.
- The court granted sentence relief in the form of confinement credit (or equivalent sentence modification) to remedy the Article 13 violation.

## Legal Principles

- Article 13, UCMJ, forbids imposing punishment or penalties on an accused before trial beyond lawful arrest or confinement related to pending charges.
- Pretrial measures violate Article 13 when intended to punish, stigmatize, or humiliate, or when excessive relative to a legitimate nonpunitive governmental purpose.
- Publicly orchestrated humiliation by command authority—such as ceremonial singling out, symbolic degradation, and public restraint/searching—can constitute illegal pretrial punishment.
- The usual remedy for an Article 13 violation is meaningful sentence relief, including confinement credit, rather than dismissal or reversal, absent a showing that the misconduct rendered the guilty plea involuntary.

## Conclusion

The court treated the commander’s mass-formation humiliation and related actions as illegal pretrial punishment under Article 13 and ordered sentence relief, but it upheld Cruz’s guilty plea and convictions because the record did not show the misconduct overcame the voluntariness of the plea.


United States v. Cruz, 25 M.J. 326 (C.M.A. 1987)