§ COLONEL NORTHcalled attention to the ruling of the Deputy Judge Advocate as to desertion, and mentioned a case in which a soldier having absented himself nine times, and at last struck off the strength of his regiment, was convicted by a court-marshal and sentenced to imprisonment. The Deputy Judge Advocate quashed the conviction, holding that a man could not be convicted of desertion unless it was proved that he did not intend to return. But how could intention be proved? As the men were not now marked, the officers had nothing to guide them, and the desertions this year alone had amounted to 6,000. Such a state of things was a disgrace to the Army.
§ MR. CARDWELLpointed out that absence without leave and desertion were totally different crimes, although there were severe punishments for both; and submitted that it was the duty of a court-martial to convict only for the crime which had been actually committed. As to proving a man's intention, that had to be done in order to secure a conviction for larceny. The present Deputy Judge Advocate was appointed in 1869, but the edition of "Simmons' Manual," the text book in these matters, published in 1863, contained this definition: "Desertion is the illegal absence of an officer or soldier from duty without the intention of returning." Therefore the Deputy Judge Advocate had not introduced a new ruling, by laying it down that intention was an essential ingredient in the crime of desertion. He rejoiced at the abolition of marking, and corporal punishment, and while he hoped courts-martial would severely punish men convicted of crime, he trusted they would not find a man guilty of a crime he had not committed.
§ Bill read the third time and passed.