REVISION.

The revision of their sentence is the last act in a trial, which a Court Martial may be called upon to perform; but no sentence given by a Court Martial, and signed by the President thereof, shall be liable to be revised more than once.

After the record of a judicial proceeding has been made up, it cannot be altered in any manner, but additions may be made to it. The original proceedings and sentence of a Court Martial cannot therefore, on a revision, be expunged; the revised sentence is merely added to the original record of the proceedings. The expunging, altering, or otherwise amending any part of the proceedings cannot be legal, being decidedly contrary to the practice of all other courts of justice.

The revision of the sentence of a Court Martial ought not to be carried to any greater extent, than a re-consideration of the proceedings originally recorded, and this is strictly consonant to the practice of courts of law. The Court Martial cannot enter into an examination of fresh evidence, for it is not on any new matter that the revision is to depend, but on an attentive reconsideration of the evidence already recorded on the proceedings.

A revision of a sentence may be rendered necessary (in cases wherein the Finding was perfectly correct,) in consequence of the Court having awarded an exorbitant, an inadequate, or an illegal punishment; and whenever the Finding is altered on revision, an alteration in the

punishment originally awarded may likewise become requisite.*

Any illegality as to the constitution of a Court Martial, or defect in its composition, cannot be amended on revision. Such flaws must obviously nullify the proceedings to such a degree, as to render the sentence innoxious to the prisoner. †

When Courts Martial have, on revision, adhered to the judgment first pronounced, the opinion and sentence have sometimes been confirmed, but not approved; the legal effect of which differs in no degree from an approval. The opinion and sentence of a Court Martial have, on other occasions been disapproved, and not confirmed; the effect of which is to nullify the sentence, but not to the extent of exposing the prisoner to another trial. †

Vide "APPROVAL, AND CONFIRMATION."

However excusable, from conscientious motives, an adherence to a Finding and Sentence once pronounced may be, yet, where error in judgment, arising from a misconception of the law, or of the custom of war in the like cases, is brought to the notice of members of a Court Martial, and supported by respectable authority, their perseverance in error is a direliction of duty, and a baneful example.*

There is not perhaps on record a stronger instance of the result produced by the revision of a sentence than is Kennedy. † Simmons.

manifested in the proceedings of a Court Martial held at Cork. The officer under trial having been acquitted of the four charges brought forward against him, the Court was ordered to reassemble, and a letter was read from His Grace the Duke of Wellington, "conveying the commands of his Majesty to revise its former sentence, and the grounds on which these commands are given." The Court, having revised their opinion and sentence, found the prisoner guilty of all the charges. The attention of officers is especially directed to the order (relative to this Court Martial,) dated Horse Guards, 12th April, 1828, not only to exemplify the alteration produced in the sentence by revision, but also on account of the admonitory remarks of his Majesty George the Fourth.