In Bergdahl Case, the Rare Charge of Misbehavior

nytimes.com - In the military’s case against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the charge of desertion, with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for five years, is the lesser count and the easier one to prove, legal experts say.

The more serious one, which carries the potential for a life sentence, is a rare and obscure charge called “misbehavior before the enemy,” one that left military lawyers struggling to recall the last time it was leveled against an American service member.

In military justice statutes, the misbehavior charge covers a grab bag of many kinds of war-zone misconduct: causing a false alarm, running away, failing to do the utmost to destroy the enemy, throwing down your weapon or ammunition, behaving cowardly, failing to do everything practicable to assist and relieve allied troops, shamefully abandoning a command and even quitting your “place of duty to plunder or pillage.”