Court-Martial Trial Practice

Federalevidence review has an excellent piece on leading questions during the prosecution direct. As part of the comment they say: The Seventh Circuit recently explored the limitation on leading questions through FRE 611(c), admonishing the government about a trend that was disturbing, even if at most it would be only harmless error. I see this…

Client leaves work at 1600. Goes to get a haircut and have a beer. Client leaves checkout counter at NEX (shown on video walking around store and register receipt) at 1658. Client drives home through heavy traffic, stopping off to buy some seafood for dinner. 1800 another car runs into client’s car. The other driver…

The News-Tribune reports: The attorney for a local soldier and alleged member of a so-called Afghan kill team used a hearing Monday and Tuesday to stage an all-out assault on the government’s key witness in the case. This would be a reference to Pvt Morlock. And Stars & Stripes reports: A key government witness in…

Here’s a new twist; Navy Times reports: A senior master-at-arms and expert dog handler once censured by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus for abusing subordinates has, in a remarkable twist of fate, been awarded the Silver Star for battlefield heroism during a harrowing 2009 firefight in Afghanistan during which he shot and killed two enemy fighters…

Courtesy of Professor Friedman: It’s going to be a little while before I offer comments directly on Williams. But meanwhile, here are thepetition for certiorari, the state’s brief in opposition, the reply by Williams, and the crucial testimony ofSandra Lambatos.

TBO.com reports that: The mother of [Kiel M. Johanson] a Coast Guard chief who is being kicked out of the service over a hazing incident says her son is the victim of a “witch hunt” and is going to appeal his court martial. I believe the older Navy terms included “pink belly” and “greasing.” I…

LTC Lakin, he is still a lieutenant colonel, comments on his appeal (reported on Military.com). “Realistically, I understand that a very small fraction [of appeals] get reviewed and a smaller fraction get overturned or anything,” Lakin said. “But the appeals attorney has some issues he wants to bring up.” I would imagine that the evidence…

Professor Friedman, a true guru of “confrontation” issues notes: It appears that the next case in the Melendez-Diaz line will come very quickly. The Supreme Court granted cert today in Williams v. Illinois, No. 10-8505, seeking review of People v. Williams, 939 N.E.2d 268 (Ill. 2010). The case presents the issue of what I have…

There was a piece over the weekend that Bozivech would have his sentencing today. It appears it will be delayed until 8 August, reports the Miami Herald.

Goffman on the Jury: Real Juror’s Attention to the “Offstage” of trials. Social psychologist Erving Goffman, in his classic work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, provides a framework that explains why jurors may turn their attention at the courthouse to information not formally presented from the witness stand. We dub this “offstage observation,”…