Court-Martial Trial Practice

The APF website is back up! The American Patriot Foundation is pleased to announce that LTC Lakin has repositioned his forces, has retained new legal counsel, and is extremely grateful that the Foundation will be dedicating the critical next few weeks before his planned court-martial on November 3-5, to focusing entirely on public affairs, strategic…

Here is a case of interest for those who do security clearance work. As part of that practice it’s not unusual to have a civilian employee or contractor with a position of public trust issue or background investigation and an SF85. CAC cards don’t always get issued without a favorable SF 85 determination. On Tuesday,…

United States v. Sagona, sentenced at court-martial on 8 May 2008, appeal decided 30 September 2010. The issue was IAC of trial defense counsel who allegedly failed to investigate and advise on a potential defense of immunity. R.C.M. 704 covers the issues of immunity, tempered by case law. Basically only the GCMCA can grant immunity,…

With LTC Lakin’s change in civilian counsel the question is, who will pay his legal fees. The APF said this up until the item was removed (mostly) from the web: American Patriot Foundation’s Legal Defense Fund will pay for all of LTC Lakin’s attorneys fees and costs, and so we urgently need your tax deductible…

Thanks to RC. The prior link for LTC Lakin’s special page has gone. When you try to go to that link you get the main page of American Patriot Foundation. Clicking to the current projects link gets you to this: Safeguard Our Constitution APF defended LTC Terry Lakin. Lt. Lakin refused to deploy until Barak…

Here is a quote from an item on DMLHS’s Facebook wall. Guess which of your favorite law firms just became “replacement counsel” on the Lakin case? Going to see what we can salvage. Looks like LTC Lakin may have reached out to Neal Puckett, a real military law knowledgeable person. Either that or Neal is…

Air Force Times reports: A religion watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate whether the Air Force Academy has given a Christian group improper access to the campus to proselytize cadets. This would not be the first time the AFA has had an issue with support to or enforced support of a specific…

Army Times reports: The Army has launched a crackdown on the drug spice at least nine commands in response to a spike in usage among soldiers. A designer drug that mimics marijuana, spice is legal in most states, and is available for sale in smoke shops and online for around $50 for three ounces. What’s…

Navy Times reports: Nearly four years after Navy officials nixed a mandatory degree requirement for advancement to senior chief, a rating has made an associate degree mandatory for all its sailors. In September, some of the 487 sailors in the legalman rating started their studies. This move is expected to transform the Navy’s legal community,…

I posted yesterday on a new Army case dealing with instructions on an affirmative defense in a court-martial under the UCMJ. Today I’m posting on United States v. Ramon, an unpublished opinion from the NMCCA dated 28 September 2010. In his sole assignment of error, the appellant alleges that the military judges erred in failing…