Court-Martial Trial Practice

Earlier I commented on prosecutors introducing inadmissible irrelevant evidence to set the stage or lay the groundwork for an investigation and prosecution (here). Here’s another case, again from the 1st Circuit. This case requires us to assess the propriety of the government’s use of a law enforcement officer as the first witness in a multi-defendant…

Here’s Stan Walters on the issue: We need to start recording ALL interrogations, stop the abuse of the criminal justice system, and ALWAYS blame the cop first if the bad guy confesses, gets convicted or if Grandma gets tazed because she failed to follow a lawful order and resisted arrest. Juries and ESPECIALLY the public…

Alcohol Abuse on Rise Among Soldiers June 20, 2009 Agence France-Presse Nearly twice as many US Army Soldiers today compared to six years ago are either alcoholic or engage in damaging behavior such as binge drinking, according to army statistics. Data shows more than 11 Soldiers per 1,000 were diagnosed as suffering from alcoholism or…

United States v. Lindsey, the dishonorable failure to pay just debt case is now on line. While prosecution in this case seems reasonable, I’m always concerned when the military begins to act as a debt collection agency. United States v. Daniel, is an unpublished opinion about admission without objection of a photograph. Appellant now contends…

United States v. Marshall, __ M.J. ___ (C.A.A.F. 2009). This is a fatal variance case. Appellant pled not guilty to escaping from the custody of Captain (CPT) Kreitman but was convicted, by exceptions and substitutions, of escaping from the custody of Staff Sergeant (SSG) Fleming. We granted review to consider whether the military judge’s findings…

Coast Guard O-6 convicted of cocaine use.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is concluding a pilot program of recorded suspect interviews. From experience viewing this video-recorded interviews all of the military services should adopt the practice. Thomas P. Sullivan has put together a wonderful publication which documents the history and current status of recorded suspect interviews not just in the United States…

For those of us who do read crime noir novels for entertainment, here is an interesting perspective. This all quote from Law.com: Legal Blog Watch. Cloak-and-Dagger Justice Perhaps it was a dark and stormy night when Scott W. Stucky was sworn in as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.…

Ted Sampsell-Jones, Making Defendants Speak, (Download PDF) 93 Minn. L. Rev. 1327 (2009). First, as a matter of constitutional criminal procedure, the Supreme Court should overrule . . . (you’ll be surprised what he suggests here). Second, as a matter of evidence law, courts should abandon the Gordon v. United States test for Rule 609,…

First Circuit focuses on relevance tests to assess the admission of out-of-court statements offered for a non-hearsay purpose; ultimately the error was harmless, in United States v. Benitez-Avila, __ F.3d __ (1st Cir. June 9, 2009) (No. 08-1463). Trial counsel often want to call the investigator to lay the groundwork on how the investigation was…