Court-Martial Trial Practice

Prof. Colin Miller begins, Similar to its federal counterpart, Idaho Rule of Evidence 804(b)(3) provides an exception to the rule against hearsay for A statement that: (A) a reasonable person in the declarant’s position would have made only if the person believed it to be true because, when made, it was so contrary to the…

Here is a link to the Report of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee. Although the Findings in this Report outline failures in leadership, they should not be interpreted as an indictment of military commanders or the U. S. Army. While the issues raised in this Report are serious and require urgent attention, they did…

As the cannabis industry continues to take root state by state, the House of Representatives voted in favor of removing marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act. The House voted Friday on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, which decriminalizes cannabis and clears the way to erase nonviolent federal marijuana convictions.…

Several years ago, Beth Van Schaack highlighted a gap in U.S. law regarding atrocity crimes. Although well established in international criminal law as well as other areas of U.S. law, Title 18 of the U.S. Code lacks command responsibility as a mode of criminal responsibility. Following the issuance of pardons by President Donald Trump, Gabor…

https://www.court-martial-ucmj.com/04122020-up-periscope/

That means the change will likely come to the MRE effective 18 months from now absent action by the Prez. See MRE 1102. The defense will no longer be required to make a demand for notice—prosecution must disclose regardless of a request! Most importantly, the notice requires more than the standard talismanic incantation and include…

Courtesy of Global Military Justice Reform blog. The Conference Report for the proposed William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 is now out and can be found here. Readers will want to look in particular at § 542, which imposes a 12-years-of-law-practice qualification for judges of the service Courts of…

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20201207/CRPT-116hrpt617.pdf

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/article247506295.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%2012.01.20&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief Should a federal law that protects National Guard members and reservists from being fired from their private sector jobs while they are deployed also apply to state government jobs? Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court hinted it might weigh in on the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court last Tuesday requested additional information from the…

Certain retirees are not subject to court-martial jurisdiction, so says Judge Richard J. Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Larrabee v. Braithwaite. We should anticipate the circuit court and the Supreme Court will get to tell us their view. After briefing and oral argument, the judge entered his…