Court-Martial Trial Practice

Marine Corps Times reports: Thirty-five percent of first lieutenants vying for promotion this year were instead sent packing by a board tasked with tightening junior-officer ranks. . . . The February Career Designation Officer Review Board, the first of two that met in 2011, offered 449 first lieutenants, or 65 percent, a continuing career on…

Air Force Times reports a case of reach for the stars: Allan Poulin Jr. dreamed of flying a fighter and landed a job interview with an F-16 reserve unit. The squadron leadership didn’t want him. The wing commander offered Poulin a job anyway. Poulin struggled at Officer Training School. The school commander signed off on…

It’s over. This years series of presentations was much better than previous years. The topics and speakers were much more relevant, while being sufficiently edgy at the same time. Gone are the days where a “prof” from TJAGSA would go through slides reporting the school’s view of “this years” military appellate case law. Such predictable…

The court is gradually putting the handouts up on the website.

in the civilian courts. Sentencing Law & Policy reports: The Ninth Circuit has an interesting opinion concerning the withdrawal of pleas in US v. Bonilla, No. 09-10307 (9th Cir. March 11, 2011) (available here), which relies heavily on the Supreme Court’s important Sixth Amendment ruling last Term in Padilla v. Kentucky. Here is how the…

Huffington Post reports that the USNA has expelled three for synthetic spice related charges, for a total of 11 dismissals in 2011. Air Force Times reports further action on the military draw down: 12 Article 15’s for involvement with “spice.” According to Foreign Policy: State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told an audience at MIT on…

Here is the 10 March 2011, written rebuttal from Manning on the Article 138, UCMJ, complaint. Colonel Choike is the Commander, Marine Corps Base, Quantico.

Fox News reports: The Army announced Thursday it will punish nine officers in connection with the Fort Hoodshootings for “leadership failures relating to the career of Maj. Hasan.” MSNBC has this piece. Since the action “non-judicial punishment” is not criminal, and the nine accused officers have the right to appeal, the Army is prohibited from…

The Marine Corps says it has issued a suicide-proof sleeping garment to the imprisoned Army private suspected of giving classified material to WikiLeaks.

Professor Friedman reminds us that we have other confrontation issues beyond the non-testifying witness concern. Focus on Crawford-related issues should not obscure the fact that many significant Confrontation Clause questions concern the scope of the accused’s right to cross-examine a witness who actually testifies at trial. Adam Liptak of the New York Times has alerted…