Court-Martial Trial Practice

Seizure and Search — (And I think this includes computers that are password protected.) Jones on Closed Containers and Apparent-Authority Consent Brian Jones has posted Keep Closed Containers Closed: Resolving the Circuit Split in Favor of Individual Privacy (Iowa Law Review, Vol. 97, November 2011) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The circuits are currently…

CAAF decided United States v. Savala today. I represented him at trial. I also represented him on appeal to the NMCCA and CAAF. This was a case I did on appeal pro bono.

fayobserver.com reports: A sailor who officials say was caught trying to sell government secrets while attending training on Fort Bragg is set to go on trial later this week. Apparently he waived his 32, a PTA in the offing? Marine Corps Times has a short piece on “sexting:” It’s called “sexting,” the practice of exchanging…

USACIL also does computer forensics. So today I get a call on a case (not mine), a forensic examiner. USACIL used a particular item to image the drive in a current case. Unfortunately they can’t explain why the report shows the same numbers that obviously come from another case. It’s called contamination. Yes, USACIL apparently…

Here’s an excellent piece by Prof. Colin Miller. It’s a follow-up to an earlier post. I have it here. One Track Bind: Brady, Melendez-Diaz, and Remedial Rationing

B-R-A-D-Y and Giglio, and Kyles, and others. Defense counsel should not trust USACIL. A number of news agencies, particularly McClatchy are digging deeper into the problems of individuals as well as management at USACIL. These issues ought to be used anytime you are requesting expert assistance for anything touched by USACIL: the do bad work,…

Inside the Detainee Abuse Task Force, reported in The Nation.

I was ruminating on the Partington issue, and I was reading the recent NMCCA’s decisions, and I came across this. Federal courts, to include the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, have long held that a defective specification challenged for the first time on appeal will be liberally construed in favor of its validity.…

So, I’m objecting to a piece of evidence that the prosecution wants given to the members. The objection is that the evidence contains inadmissible material. The TC says, well that’s OK, give it to them with a limiting instruction. So I say, wait a minute. This is different to the situation where something is testified…

In United States v. Serna, an unpublished opinion, NMCCA holds that indecent acts with a child over 12 is effectively an “LIO” of indecent acts with a child under 12 for sentencing purposes. The age of the victim being a potential aggravating factor. This was a GP case where the MJ failed to resolve inconsistencies…