Court-Martial Trial Practice

The USNA grad plead guilty to stealing from teammate lockers, using credit cards, and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to a dismissal, one year confinement, and TF.

The DoD Joint Service Committee on Military Justice (JSC) will hold a public meeting on new proposals. The notice of the meeting and the proposals can be found at 74 Fed. Reg. 47785. For those not attending the meeting comments can be submitted in writing /NIMJ.

United States: Adventist, Non-Combatant, Sentenced to Jail by U.S. Marine Corps Court-Martial A United States Marine Corps court-martial has sentenced a Marine, who came to a belief in non-combatancy shortly after signing a two-year re-enlistment, to seven months in jail, rather than separating him from the military. Observers say this is a highly unusual outcome…

Supreme Court. On Tuesday, October 13, the Court will hear arguments in No. 08-651, Padilla v. Commonwealth of Kentucky. At issue in the case is whether a criminal defendant’s guilty plea can be set aside because his defense counsel affirmatively misadvised him with regard to the deportation consequences of the plea, and whether such misadvice…

Court-martial of 2 soldiers weighed in Iraq discipline cases, by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY, 11 October 2009. The U.S. Army is weighing whether to prosecute two soldiers charged with maltreatment and cruelty of their troops, including a soldier who committed suicide just four days after joining the unit in Iraq. Ten soldiers testified over the…

Here’s a neat article by Robert Fugate, Defining Terms of Art in Legal Writing, Texas Bar J., 748, October 2009. /tip New legal writer.

At a September 2009, meeting the Federal Rules Committee approved and forwarded a number of changes to federal practice. Of note to military practitioners, about 2 years from now, is Fed. R. Evid. 804 and its changes. I say that long because Mil. R. Evid. 1102 doesn’t require adoption until 18 months after the federal…

Barbara Rich Bushell, Identifying Leaders, 21(5) The Jury Expert, Sept. 2009. When I initially read this piece I did not see any relevance to a military Members panel (the jury). The military “foreperson” is preselected, and will be automatically selected after challenges – it’s the senior Member by rank and date of rank. However, after…

There has been some attention to sex and labor trafficking in the military, witness the issue of prostitution. Trafficking in Sex and Labor: Domestic and International Responses Presented by The University of Pennsylvania Law Review November 13th and 14th, 2009 at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA. Prof. Ammen, a member of the…

Army tests anonymous treatment for alcohol abuse By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes, Saturday, October 10, 2009 TOKYO — For better and sometimes worse, alcohol is a common battle buddy. Troops use it to celebrate after a long deployment and to self-medicate when the euphoria fades, leaving only stress, emotions and memories. To combat that…