Court-Martial Trial Practice

Here’s an interesting side on the recent exploits of South Carolina’s itinerant governor. Air Force Reserve opts not to discipline Mark Sanford over marital affair By Tim Smith • Staff writer • July 29, 2009 COLUMBIA — The U.S. Air Force Reserve considered disciplinary measures against Gov. Mark Sanford over his extramarital affair but has…

CAAF has issued an opinion in United States v. Smead, __ M.J. ___ (C.A.A.F. 2009). Chief Judge Effron wrote the opinion for Judges Baker and Stuckey, and Judges Ryan and Erdmann concurred in the judgment.

Here is an interesting post by Prof. Colin Miller on his EvidenceProfBlog about search incident to seizure. Arizona v. Gant: A Windfall For The Government?

How many clients ask about property taken by law enforcement and not promptly returned, or had their personal property lost or stolen while they are in pretrial confinement? There are several methods I’ve used to jog the system, sometimes successfully. a. Property seized in a search with no evidentiary value: Ask the TC and case…

Do you get .pdf documents? Do you want to use the text from the .pdf document in other documents? Do you want to edit the .pdf document? I use PureText to copy parts of text for cut-and-pasting of small parts of a .pdf document. PureText is free. You highlight what text you want to copy…

I routinely counsel clients not to talk with anyone regarding their case. Here is a new Navy case which is a reminder. There is no evidence to suggest the appellant was engaged in plea discussions or negotiations with LtCol C at the time he repeated the advice from his father-in-law. The record reflects the appellant…

I have previously commented about evidence of the victim’s character for violence and specific incidents. To refresh – there are several ways the assault victim’s character for violent behavior can become relevant and admissible in an assault case. a. The defense puts on opinion testimony about the victim’s violent, threatening, or assaultive non-peaceful character, as…

An item sometimes missed or perhaps not always explored in cases with a confession is the question of corroboration. Here is an Army case that discusses the issue quite well. The case recognizes that the amount of corroboration is small so it’s easy to gloss over the corroboration issue. Here is the value of the…

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Concluding that the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the government to present expert evidence that a thumb print found on some of the contraband recovered by the authorities was a match to Baines’ print, we affirm the judgment of the district court. United…

When the Judge Is the Jury: Your goals don’t change in a bench trial, but your techniques should, August 2009 issue of the ABA Journal.