Judges confronted with allegations of racial or ethnic bias among jurors are allowed to investigate the claims, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. The opinion created a new exception to case law historically barring judges from questioning jurors about their process. h/t The Blog of Legal Times. Kittle v. United States, quotable…
Continue reading ›Well, the military has a sort of probation, but it’s not well formalized. Suspending a sentence is a form of unsupervised probation. Maybe some more detailed supervision would be appropriate. No reason a commander can’t do that already – conditions on suspending punishment. Also, the Services – well the Air Force and Army used to…
Continue reading ›I follow Prof. Colin Miller’s EvidenceProf blog daily. Didn’t realize it until now, but his “work” is available in eBooks for Legal Education. This is a product from the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction, and some of it appears to be free.
Continue reading ›The ever pithy Prof. Colin Miller has an excellent post about issues under Mil. R. Evid. 1004. The best evidence rule is now in Mil. R. Evid. 1004. The rule requires originals, not and/or, unless the original is lost or destroyed. So, when you object make that distinction clear. Prosecutors and military judges often conflate…
Continue reading ›Anything by Prof. Leo is well worth the read. Leo on Interrogation Contamination Richard A. Leo (University of San Francisco – School of Law) has posted Why Interrogation Contamination Occurs (Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The problem of police interrogation contamination (disclosing or leaking of non-public facts)…
Continue reading ›The general rule is that you are stuck with the record on appeal and can’t supplement it with new or additional facts. There are however some limited exceptions to the general rule for items of appellate judicial notice. Here is a short piece discussing some of the exceptions. An example from military appeals: The ACCA…
Continue reading ›http://www.denverda.org/dna/DNA_Nonhuman.htm Thanks to BW, who shall remain otherwise anonymous.
Continue reading ›Opinions, published and unpublished. A nice discussion of judicial opinions in military cases can be found at United States v. Clifton, 35 M.J. 79 (C.M.A. 1992).
Continue reading ›We’ve seen some recent cases discussing the issue of over zealous argument by trial counsel on the merits. What to do, oh what to do. How about object! And, Although not essential to the decision in this case, another matter raised by trial and appellate defense counsel warrants comment. In argument prior to sentence, trial…
Continue reading ›NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & THE LAW at Stetson University College of Law “SHARING KNOWLEDGE TO PROMOTE JUSTICE” The relationship between law and science and technology has been called both an essential alliance and a reluctant embrace, Sheila Jasanoff, Science at the Bar: Law, Science and Technology in America (1996). Judges, lawyers, scientists and…
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