Court-Martial Trial Practice

Stuart Ford’s article, Has President Trump Committed a War Crime by Pardoning War Criminals? 35 AM. U. INT’L. L. REV. 757 (2020) seeks to answer that from an international law perspective through the lens of command responsibility. Command responsibility generally has two sides–the duty to prevent and the duty to punish. One interesting question is…

The military trial judge erred in concluding that the search authorization required AFOSI complete information to determine probable cause for defendant’s DNA in a sex assault case. It’s not. Just because there were differing versions of how dressed the victim was when she woke up doesn’t make the authorization without probable cause. After the first…

The head of Hill Air Force Base’s Equal Opportunity Office has been reassigned after failing to take complaints of sexual harassment seriously. As part of the investigation, it appears two attorneys were referred to the Professional Responsibility Program for the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps. That office has initiated a separate inquiry into the…

Kentucky has a similar variant of Fed. R. Evid. 804(b)(1). In its recent opinion in Estate of Karen Burden v. Hardison, 2020 WL 7640000 (Ky.App. 2000), the Court of Appeals of Kentucky dealt with one element of this exception and left another element for another day–says Prof. Colin Miller. The trial court in Hardison had…

The High Court of Denmark found that the defendant was guilty of having tried to abuse his position to get his then-girlfriend and later spouse admitted to a highly coveted leadership training within the Armed Forces. He was also found guilty of attempting to abuse his position by trying to persuade a colonel to hire…

Looks like the ACCA website has been redesigned and reorganized. They now have a page for summary affirmances and a “Appellate Library,” and it looks as if this is where briefs will be found. ACCA had earlier announced it would do this. They now list “short form affirmances” in a separate list (in the past…

Standage v. Braithwaite, No. ELH-20-2830, (D.C. MD Dec. 22, 2020). This is the lawsuit filed by Midshipman Standage t declaratory and injunctive relief regarding his recommended disenrollment from the Naval Academy. The suit was dismissed without prejudice as not yet ripe. Standage was the subject of Academy disciplinary actions because he was accused of sending…

when asked for my qualifications at trial I reply that I am 27b certified and 42a sworn. United States v. Kellett, No. 202000178, 2020 CCA LEXIS 424 n.1 (N-M. Ct. Crim. App. Nov. 25, 2020). Certification in one Service is effectively certification in all.

COURT OFAPPEALS-TENNESSEE (Nashville) See State v. Tennessee. A post-trial discovery case. The court begins, “The primary issue in this case involves the State’s delayed disclosure of obviously exculpatory evidence.” Overall a very nice cases discussing Brady-plus’s [[1]] application to post-trial matters. Colin Miller in discussing this case observes that, “In Brady v. Maryland, the United…

The Supreme Court has reversed CAAF in Briggs and Colins, which effectively also overrules Mangahas. https://www.caaflog.org/uploads/1/3/2/3/132385649/19-108_8njq.pdf