Court-Martial Trial Practice

No pay due, not needed. Army Times reports that a captain stationed at Fort Lewis has plead guilty to stealing about $690,000.00 while in Iraq. No court-martial.

I have posted in connection with some comments about Major Hasan and his desire to have patients prosecuted at court-martial for war crimes and other offenses while deployed to Iraq. Major Hasan’s war crimes trial requests, 17 November 2009. The issue has gained new attention with the recent mass shootings at Fort Hood that killed…

A number of articles are circulating and the blogosphere is discussing the obligations of Major Hasan’s counsel to do anything and everything to avoid the death penalty as a sentence at his court-martial. Here is an interesting item, not that it’s going to be relevant to the Fort Hood case involving Major Hasan, but as…

Whenever I talk about court-room lawyering I always emphasize that the person must first be themself and not try to become someone they aren’t. Once you decide who you are, your “style,” and how you will present, then you can take the other tools of advocacy and adapt them to your personality and form of…

Thanks to CAAFLog there is news about the military mandatory release program imposed on those convicted and sentenced at court-martial. Judge Rogers of the 10th Circuit has found the program to be legal and constitutional, in Huschak v. Gray, 642 F. Supp. 2d 1268 (D. Kan. 2009). (United States v. Huschak, ACM 35382 (A. F.…

Here is a good site for information about Stolen Valor Act issues. Web Site Aims to Uncover Fakers in Fatigues Reportstolenvalor.org. Those on active duty can be sent to court-martial for prosecution under the UCMJ.

I’ve posted before about different cases where a service-member or civilian have “invented” their military career. Two recent examples are here and here. Now there’s another. Military.com reports that a retired senior chief petty officer appears to have fabricated his presence in USS COLE when the ship was attacked. In early November, retired Senior Chief…

The “rule of lenity” “requires ambiguous criminal laws to be interpreted in favor of the defendants subjected to them.” From Levin, Daniel and Stewart, Nathaniel, Wither the Rule of Lenity, Engage, November 16, 2009. This is a claim or objection I have used from time to time, not always successfully. Typically I’m using it as…

I found this piece by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism of passing interest. The lead blog story for a while is the SEAL case and the pending court-martial. I find it surprising in light of the ongoing events regarding Major Hasan at Fort Hood.

Washington Post reports that Col Morris Davis will be released at the end of his probationary period with Congressional Research Service because of recent media pieces. In the Nov. 10 Journal article, Davis wrote that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s decision to use both federal court and military commissions to try detainees was “a…