10 U.S.C. § 859
Section 859 · Art. 59. Error of law; lesser included offense
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 1,181 court decisions — leading case United States v. Grostefon (1982)
Most recently applied in 374 F. Supp. 3d 1250 - Al Bahlul v. United States (March 2019)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 10 U.S.C. § 866 · 10 U.S.C. § 934 · 10 U.S.C. § 839
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) A finding or sentence of a court-martial may not be held incorrect on the ground of an error of law unless the error materially prejudices the substantial rights of the accused.
(b) Any reviewing authority with the power to approve or affirm a finding of guilty may approve or affirm, instead, so much of the finding as includes a lesser included offense.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
859(b) 50:646(a).50:646(b). May 5, 1950, ch. 169, §1 (Art. 59), 64 Stat. 127. The word “may” is substituted for the word “shall”.