Articles Posted in Up Periscope

People have been all over the place in terms of like or dislike for the new SVC system the military is putting in place for sexual assault cases. Frankly, most of what the system is doing doesn’t trouble me. I’ve been more concerned with how it works in practice so that I can either use…

Back when I was a Magistrate Judge between 1987 and 1992, many federal prosecutors followed an “open file” policy. That is, the defense lawyer got access to the complete investigative file–everything the prosecutor had–except for legal research and the prosecutor’s outgoing correspondence. The defense lawyer was able to copy whatever the lawyer wanted. That seems…

Judge Kopf at Hercules and the Umpire, someone you should follow, references this case in regard to “the most interesting man in the world.” See United States v. Olsen.

Center for Prosecutor Integrity. An Epidemic of Prosecutor Misconduct. Prosecutor Ethics in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Cases

How do you get attention, you say: Two-Thirds Of Military Supreme Court Cases Are About CP Perhaps a little known reality is the overwhelming flow of CP appeals into the docket of the U.S. military’s highest appellate court. About two-thirds of the docket in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces consists of…

We often have cases where medical records, mental health records, and other similarly protected records need to be provided to a TC for fowarding to the MJ for an in-camera review. If the TC already has the records and has reviewed them, the proper approach is that the defense gets a copy of everything the…

Another tragic tale of tears fed by OSI lies. HONOR AND DECEPTION: A secretive Air Force program recruits academy students to inform on fellow cadets and disavows them afterward By Dave Philipps Facing pressure to combat drug use and sexual assault at the Air Force Academy, the Air Force has created a secret system of…

Here’s a report about Australian military justice. http://www.theage.com.au/comment/adf-aint-broke-dont-fix-it-20131128-2ycru.html Unlike the US, since Solorio, the Australians defer most criminal prosecutions to the civilian courts, and they focus on true disciplinary problems. If nothing else they get cheaper military justice. I seem to recollect GEN Ordierno estimating $116M to stand up a MJ system that it appears…

Here is the new Army policy on Army personnel convicted of a sex offense and who don’t get a punitive discharge. ARMY DIRECTIVE 2013-21.pdf 736K View Download No orders overseas, and to be returned CONUS if already overseas is an included assignment policy.

Those of us who deal with them know that crime labs are not infallible. That’s because they are staffed with people. Here is an ongoing issue that’s coming to some intermediate resolution. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/22/246739071/chemist-pleads-guilty-in-massachusetts-crime-lab-scandal Remember USACIL. Remember Brooks AF Drug Lab (and how they initially hid the problem). http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Gross_Misconduct_at_Military_Crime_Lab.php http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/19/142444/army-threatens-to-fire-whistleblower.html http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/29/134411/were-army-crime-lab-problems-withheld.html Remember DCFL. Remember the Mobley…