Court-Martial Trial Practice

State Department investigators say Chief Engineman (SW) Arturo Puente at Jacksonville’s Mayport Naval Station has used a false name for the last 22 years while working at U.S. embassies in Rome and Panama, according to the Florida Times-Union newspaper. Navy Times reports. No indications of a court-martial or any UCMJ violations.

Here is Randy Wilson’s letter to his children about being a trial lawyer. His thoughts are equally applicable to both sides in a court-martial. Two of my children decided to go to law school. One just passed the bar exam, and the other is in the third year of law school. This is a letter…

Federal law should govern a federal NCIS search on a military base for evidence of a murder of a civilian employee on the base that ends up prosecuted in state court. The court finds that this is a narrow issue in this case. The security search of defendant’s car on the military base was also…

I follow futurelawyer.com because he has one of the great sites for lawyers like myself who travel with an office-in-the-briefcase. Here is an interesting blog for the end of the year. No this isn’t a gadget or a piece of software. But the “procedure” may come in handy. Hopefully it doesn’t bowl you over with…

Airman 1st Class Corey Hernandez pulled the trigger. Nothing was supposed to happen, except the metallic click of the hammer striking the firing pin. Instead, the pistol fired. Until Dec. 10, when the 23-year-old Garcia died, the Air Force had not had any reported incidents of airmen playing Trust. Air Force Times reports Troops have…

Thanks to howappealing.law.com, here is a Ohio State Supreme Court opinion in State v. Smith. The issue is warrantless searches of cell-phones. While this issue may have been raised in a court-martial, I don’t see a relevant military appellate decision. So the issue is apparently an open one for court-martial cases. Here is a link…

The Army’s attempt to stem a rising tide of suicides made it impossible for a Fort Bliss soldier convicted of cruelty toward subordinates to get a fair trial, the soldier’s parents say. “I still maintain that this was a miscarriage of justice,” said John Taylor, father of Pvt. Jarrett Taylor. “They needed a conviction and…

Jury instructions are too often so poorly written that even the most intelligent juror cannot understand them. That’s a serious problem. So how can we make jury instructions more understandable? Prof. Peter Tiersma offers many concrete suggestions in this article, available for free download on SSRN. If you’re a trial judge or trial lawyer, you…

FederalEvidence blog has this update on the status of a reporter privilege. As commented earlier, under Mil.R. Evid. 1103, any new evidence rule will become applicable to court-martial cases. After many weeks of being listed on the Senate Judiciary Committee business calendar, on December 10, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved by a vote of…

FrumForum interviewed retired Major Merideth A. Bucher, author of the much cited paper, The Impact of Pregnancy on U.S. Army Readiness. Bucher explains that a woman who becomes pregnant ceases to be available for combat service. She will be returned home; her unit is left missing a body, a soldier. She passionately told of her…