REQUIREMENT THAT COURTS-MARTIAL CONSIST OF NOT LESS THAN 12 MEMBERS IN CAPITAL CASES.

SEC. 582. REQUIREMENT THAT COURTS-MARTIAL CONSIST OF NOT LESS THAN 12 MEMBERS IN CAPITAL CASES. (a) Classification of General Court-Martial in Capital Cases.—Section 816(1)(A) of title 10, United States Code (article 16(1)(A) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice) is amended by inserting after “five members” the following: “or, in a case in which the accused may be sentenced to a penalty of death, the number of members determined under section 825a of this title (article 25a)”. (b) Number of Members Required.—(1) Chapter 47 of title 10, United States Code (the Uniform Code of Military Justice), is amended by inserting after section 825 (article 25) the following new section: “§ 825a. Art. 25a. Number of members in capital cases “In a case in which the accused may be sentenced to a penalty of death, the number of members shall be not less than 12, unless 12 members are not reasonably available because of physical conditions or military exigencies, in which case the convening authority shall specify a lesser number of members not less than five, and the court may be assembled and the trial held with not less than the number of members so specified. In such a case, the convening authority shall make a detailed written statement, to be appended to the record, stating why a greater number of members were not reasonably available.”. (2) The table of sections at the beginning of subchapter V of such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 825 (article 25) the following new item: “825a. 25a. Number of members in capital cases.”. (c) Absent and Additional Members.—Section 829(b) of such title (article 29 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice) is amended— (1) by inserting “(1)” after “(b)”; (2) by striking “five members” both places it appears and inserting “the applicable minimum number of members”; and (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph: “(2) In this section, the term ‘applicable minimum number of members’ means five members or, in a case in which the death penalty may be adjudged, the number of members determined under section 825a of this title (article 25a).”. 115 STAT. 1125 (d) Effective Date.—The amendments made by this section shall apply with respect to offenses committed after December 31, 2002.