Reid v. Covert
United States Supreme Court
354 U.S. 1 (1957)
Under executive agreements with Great Britain and Japan, U.S. military courts had exclusive jurisdiction over crimes committed abroad by American servicemembers and their dependents. Clarice Covert (defendant) killed her Air Force-sergeant husband on a British airbase, and Dorothy Smith (defendant) killed her serviceman husband in Japan; both women were court-martialed under military law without a jury trial or the Bill of Rights protections normally available in civilian courts. Covert's habeas petition was granted by the district court, and the government's appeal was consolidated with Smith's separate, unsuccessful habeas case.
Whether the protections of the Bill of Rights apply to civilian U.S. citizens criminally prosecuted by the U.S. military abroad, and whether a treaty or executive agreement allowing such prosecutions can override those protections.