Court-Martial Trial Practice

I understand the conclusions of the court in New v. United States, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 18157 (8th Cir. August 31, 2011). Defendant in his § 2255 failed to show that defense counsel was ineffective for not arguing that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in a hospital room. He cited no controlling case…

SignOnSanDiego reports an interesting civilian case, but sufficiently relevant for this weekend. (The judge has dismissed NCIS and AFIP as defendents.) The sample of U.S. Marine Sgt. Todd Sommer’s liver and kidney was full of arsenic, more arsenic than had ever been found in a human tissue sample before — by 1,250 percent, according to…

KSALLink reports: A Fort Riley soldier is killed during a standoff at a motel in Abilene. . . . The Army says that Evenson was reported Absent Without Leave by military authorities Tuesday when he failed to appear for the second day of his court-martial for rape of a child. He was tried in absentia…

Slightly off topic. The Richmond Times Despatch reports on the pending appellate action of the “Norfolk Four.” Seems to me this might be a coram nobis case had it been a court-martial. From FOB Tacoma, The News Tribune reports: The Army is moving forward with most of the charges it pressed against a Joint Base…

Professor Freidman the Great Confrontationist has posted the Petitioner’s Brief and Appendix for Williams v. Illinois. This case is one of several we should be following that will come from the Supremes. This issue presented in Williams is: Whether the prosecution violates the Confrontation Clause when it presents, pursuant to a state rule of evidence,…

Wuterich v. United States.

Police came to do a knock-and-talk, and defendant objected to a search of the bedroom he shared with his wife. When he objected, the police took the wife and her mother outside to talk about consent. The district court’s effort to find a hierarchy of privacy interests in the home has no foundation inRandolph, and…

I posted about eyewitness testimony the other day. Here is an article to read. Sandra Guerra Thompson (University of Houston Law Center) has postedJudicial Gatekeeping of Police-Generated Witness Testimony on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article urges a fundamental change in the administration of criminal justice. It calls for an active role for trial…

Yes, this season appears to be the one to address a number of lingering or ambiguous (or not so ambiguous) issues about Mil. R. Evid. 412. So, it seems apt that the last opinion for this season is out: United States v. Ellenbrock. We granted review to determine whether the military judge erred in applying…

United States v. Sweeney. This is a Crawford-Blazier case. In the Blazier cases, we set forth a straightforward path for analyzing the admissibility of drug testing reports under the Confrontation Clause. . . . we hold that Appellant was denied his right to confront the witnesses against him, and we remand to the court below…