Court-Martial Trial Practice

Take a look at United States v. Magnon, in which NMCCA finds that a prosecutors closing argument on the merits was: The trial counsel’s argument was inartful; it was not a model of how a trial counsel should close his case; and it was improper. While portions of his argument might have been subject to…

Where are we at. CrimProfBlog brings us: Cicchini on the Confrontation Clause Michael D. Cicchini has posted Dead Again: The Latest Demise of the Confrontation Clause (Fordham Law Review, Vol. 80, 2011) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court abandoned its Roberts “reliability” approach to the right of confrontation.…

Federal Evidence Review brings to us a useful argument about the “notorious” slippery slope between propensity evidence and evidence admitted under Mil. R. Evid. 404(b). I’ve noted elsewhere the tendency of prosecutors of making talismanic assertions that, “it’s evidence of intent, motive, modus, your honor.” The defense and judges need to hold the prosecution to…

In United States v. McLean, the AFFCA determined that aggravated assault is an LIO of maiming. The defense theory on appeal, but not at trial, was that the AA was not a listed LIO (an issue addressed in Jones). Just because it is or isn’t listed as an LIO in the RCM is not an…

Richard Gabriel was the defense jury consultant in that case. Here is his piece on the case. Many of the hosts and regular guests of the HLN have admitted that they believed Casey Anthony to be guilty either before or during the trial. And it was with this prejudgment that both the press and the…

Brown v. United States. Petitioner sought relief for insufficiency of proof on a rape conviction and recalculation of some sentence credit. Petitioner now claims his pretrial confinement was 230 days instead of 210, and seeks adjustment by this court of his military sentence. As respondents point out, however, petitioner failed to include this claim in…

The new online edition of The Jury Expert has several articles of interest to the trial practitioner. Narrative Persuasion in Legal Settings. The authors note the extensive research on rhetorical or argument based communications to the “jury” with narrative communications. While the research into narrative argument is relatively young, there are useful considerations for todays…

San Antonio News-Express reports: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan won’t go on trial until March, but the Army already has selected 12 potential jurors. The jury, however, isn’t coming from Fort Hood, where Hasan is accused of gunning down 45 people in a 2009 shooting spree. In what attorneys say is a bow to concerns about…

Navy Times reports the issuance of another Secretarial letter of censure: In a slap at the fading and officially out-of-favor tradition of racy, sarcastic and irreverent aviation call signs, a just-retired Navy fighter squadron commanding officer was censured by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Wednesday for failing to halt and subsequently condoning the hazing of a…

Here are some thoughts from Professor McElhaney, in the ABA Journal on examining experts at depositions. It is not too hard to replace “deposition” with “Article 32.” I know, I know, it’s not often the expert shows up at a 32. But other witnesses do. Some of the same principles apply to any witness at…