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Here is John C. Yoo’s October 23, 2001 memo on the use of U.S. troops to conduct military warrantless raids inside the U.S. here. tip: FourthAmendment blog.

[I quote] If you’re a briefwriter who, for whatever reason, rarely gets the opportunity to present oral argument, take heart in this quotation by a Fifth Circuit legend: Oral argument, as such, is rarely, if ever, so essential to elemental fairness as to orbit to a constitutional apogee. Indeed, the practice of Courts of disposing…

Psychology & Crime News has an interesting post about forensic linguistics in crime detection. Using forensic linguistics in the criminal justice system, P&CN, 28 February 2009. John Olsson of the Forensic Linguistics Institute is one of the UK’s most experienced forensic linguists, with over 300 criminal cases in his portfolio. He kindly agreed to answer…

NDAA National Prosecution Standards – 2nd Edition Download Publication This is the most recent version of the National Prosecution Standards by the National District Attorneys Association. The standards are currently being considered for possible revision and will soon be available for sale on this Web site. It is improper for a trial counsel to interject…

A little off message, but I suppose this item could be squeezed into previous posts about forensics. No longer “death by natural causes”: The Associated Press writes, “police and medical examiners who thought a man died of natural causes changed their minds after funeral-home workers found bullet holes in his head.” After realizing the mistake,…

In his first public statements since a 2005 double-murder arrest in Iraq, now-acquitted Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez of Rensselaer County said Tuesday he was “very, very innocent” of the slayings — yet expected a guilty verdict. This is reported at Veterans for Common-Sense.org, and is a reprint of: Robert Gavin, Army Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez,…

The defense wins one. Actually, yesterday I had the pleasure of being a semi-final judge for the National Security Law Moot Court Competition hosted at George Washington Univ. Law School. 23 teams from law schools around the country competed. The two issues before the “U.S. Supreme Court” were: The constitutionality of a civilian being prosecuted…

United States v. Arrington, 296 Fed. Appx. 646, No. 08-4018, unpublished op. (10th Cir. 14 October 2009). The estranged wife of the accused had no actual or apparent authority to consent to a search of the accused’s hotel room. This was so even though the room was rented in the wife’s mother’s name and the…

The prosecution of civilians at court-martial has been an interesting development since the Article 2(a)(10), UCMJ, changes. For a little background see the earlier musings on this topic. There has been only one private contractor ever indicted by the Department under MEJA for any sort of physically abusive or violent crime – Aaron Langston of…