Court-Martial Trial Practice

Here’s a case from New Jersey of some interest, Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc., 2010 N.J. LEXIS 241 (March 30, 2010). [W]e find that Stengart had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the e-mails she exchanged with her attorney on Loving Care’s laptop. Stengart plainly took steps to protect the privacy of those e-mails…

eNews Park Forest reports. Last August, Travis Bishop refused to serve in Afghanistan. Having filed for Conscientious Objector (CO) status, Bishop, based at Fort Hood, Texas, in the US Army’s 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, was court-martialed and sentenced to 12 months in a military brig. He was released from the brig today. Bishop served his…

The Supreme Court has issued an opinion in Padilla v. Kentucky, which addresses the duty to inform a client of the collateral consequences of the conviction on their immigrant status. I have posted on this in connection with United States v. Miller, 63 M.J. 452 (C.A.A.F. 2006) and other cases: here, here, here, and here.…

Family Security Matters reports: A decorated active duty Army medical officer, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Lakin (selected for promotion to Colonel), is calling upon his chain of command and his Congressional delegation to force President Obama to release his original birth certificate. He is the highest ranking officer to go public over this controversy and in…

KWTX.com reports that: Defense attorney John Galligan said Tuesday he’s asking the Army to delay the hearing that will determine whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan will be tried by a military court for the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center that left 13 dead and 29 injured.

ACCA has issued an opinion in United States v. Trigueros, 68 M.J. ___ (A. Ct. Crim. App. 2010). [Post updated to address a CAAFLog point, to add some links, and try to fix some formatting.] This case involves the common problem of discovery of a victims mental health records. There are two troubling aspects to…

Two items came across my screen at about the same time. The FayObserver reports that: The judge in the court-martial of Army Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis rejected defense calls for a mistrial this morning. Defense lawyers claimed that the judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, acted with partiality – or the appearance of partiality – in front…

Human Events reports that: One of three Navy SEALs facing a court martial announced at a rally Saturday that he has passed a polygraph test, casting doubt on the Pentagon’s case against him. Rep. John Shadegg (R.-Ariz.) who attended and spoke at the rally, told HUMAN EVENTS that “while the lie detector test results won’t…

Not all states allow a prior court-martial conviction into evidence. But as the decision in Oliver v. Commonwealth, 60 S.E. 2d 567 (2005), shows, the Commonwealth of Virginia considers a prior special court-martial conviction admissible in sentencing. In principle, we accept that certain “wholly unconstitutional” convictions can be collaterally attacked and disqualified for consideration during…

Guantanamo Bay Detainees in the Courts, an eBook by Leagle.com. Legal experts will analyze the Guantanamo Bay detainee cases for decades to come, but presented here are the court opinions themselves, unedited and in their entirety, so that readers can review a court’s reasoning firsthand, unfiltered and without bias. The opinions are in answer to…