Court-Martial Trial Practice

ACC: Sir, I was at the gym, so I wasn’t where this happened. TC: Objection your honor, we’ve received no notice under Mil. R. Evid. 701. MJ: Sustained. DC: Judge we are only offering alibi through the accused. MJ: The objection is sustained, move on counsel. An accused has a constitutional right to present a…

Hometown Annapolis reports: Evidence against a midshipman charged with raping a classmate was strong enough to warrant a court-martial, Naval Academy officials said Tuesday. Military.com reports on a rather lugubrious incident at Fort Lee. The Air Force is investigating a photo that appeared online depicting Airmen posing with an open coffin that contains another Airman…

computer to blog, or for other purposes? There is an interesting case going on in the Ninth, United States v. Nosal. The case was recently reconsidered en banc. Howard Bashman at How Appealing quotes an article: Ginny LaRoe of The Recorder has a report (subscription required) that begins, “Toss together Alex Kozinski and an untested…

The ever excellent Federal Evidence Review has this nice summary and analysis of White v. Illinois. While here they report: Vacating cocaine distribution conviction and remanding because defendant’s trial included expert testimony by a witness about the contents of the drug identification analysis reported by a non-testifying expert, violating the Confrontation Clause; as the expert’s…

Here is a link to Executive Order 13593, in the Federal Register, dated 13 December 2011, which amends the MCM.

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals issued a Memorandum Opinion on 9 December 2011, in the case of United States v. Perterson. The opinion is worth reading for its discussion of prosecution over-reaching in aggravation witnesses, cross-examination of defense witnesses, and argument. The defense did not object to the prosecution argument, but as the opinion…

Navy Times has a tally of CO and senior enlisted firings for 2010 – 2011 to date. #2 on the list is CO, RLSO, Japan. Military.com has more on the firing and NJP of: A Navy skipper who lost his command this summer was fired in part for making his Sailors work on a Sunday…

White v. Illinois. Argument transcript. Professor Friedman. Here is a point from Professor Friedman about not presuming labs are as proficient as they say. I have no doubt that Cellmark runs very proficient labs. But blog reader Patsy Myers points out that if you do a search for “Cellmark falsified evidence” you come up with…

Navy Times reports: The commander of a deployed EA-6B Prowler squadron was fired late Thursday following an investigation into sexual harassment allegations, the Navy announced Friday. (Interesting, perhaps to Navy folks, the XO was allowed to take temporary command. Looking at the allegations and knowing the function of an XO in a Navy unit —…

let this never happen to me.