Court-Martial Trial Practice

Colorado v. Johnson, No. 2021 CO 35, 396 P.3d ____ (2021), requires us to visit the Hobson’s choice where you have successfully had evidence or statements suppressed but there is much value added if the client testifies. The issue then becomes one of potential impeachment with the suppressed evidence. Mil. R. Evid. 304(e)(1) gives us…

In United States v. Schloff, we had an issue with extraneous influences in the “jury” room. The two senior members essentially argued that the Army reputation for dealing with sexual assaults was relevant to their findings–and a guilty result ensued. At the beginning of deliberations on findings of appellant’s court-martial, the president and senior ranking…

I think we all know that MCIOs use Cellebrite UFED devices and software to conduct DFEs of an accused’s cell or smartphone. Up until now, it seems, the DFE reports have been accepted as reliable and accurate so we do not often find ourselves litigating the reliability of the DFE reports. Have circumstances changed which…

The Army has announced servicewide and command-specific changes in the wake of a scathing independent report last year that called for a major overhaul of both its Criminal Investigation Command and its Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program, reports Army Times. The changes include the following, according to an Army statement: Army-wide Updated CID policies…

Until now, a person wishing to upgrade their discharge would file a petition with the Service discharge review board. Beginning April 2021, the Department of Defense has established a new and final board of appeal, called the Discharge Appeal Review Board. The new Discharge Appeal Review Board will allow those service members a final review…

Another item from Prof. Colin Miller Professor Katie Kronick (American University Washington College of Law) has posted “Forensic Science and the Judicial Conformity Problem” (Seton Hall Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Almost a quarter of known wrongful convictions have involved faulty forensic science evidence. Since 2008, a series of government-sponsored reports…

Prof. Miller brings us this. Federal Rule of Evidence 609(b) states the following: (b) Limit on Using the Evidence After 10 Years. This subdivision (b) applies if more than 10 years have passed since the witness’s conviction or release from confinement for it, whichever is later. Evidence of the conviction is admissible only if: (1)…

United States v. Pearson, 80 M.J. ___ (N-M Ct. Crim. App. 2021). Sentence adjudged 25 July 2019 by a general court-martial convened at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, consisting of officer and enlisted members. Sentence in the Entry of Judgment: confinement for eight months and a duck dinner. Appellant asserts four assignments of error…

APPELLATE ADVOCACY Tessa Dysart at Appellate Advocacy Blog posts, ““This is Not Proper Appellate Advocacy”: Third Circuit Slaps Sanctions on Attorney Who Copied and Pasted Trial Court Briefs. The attorney was ordered to personally pay the defendant’s costs. For a historical segue—you might remember that the NMCCA once had a problem of cut-and-pasting, largely wholesale…

Here’s is a timely reminder about prosecution experts. This report comes from NBC news. For more than three years, authorities in the state of Washington considered Dr. Elizabeth Woods one of their go-to experts in cases of suspected child abuse, often relying on her medical opinions to determine when to take children from parents or…