Court-Martial Trial Practice

United States v. Martin, ACCA April 2020. On appeal, Appellant argued that six separate convictions of Art. 107 were UMC under the circumstances, but Appellant’s UMC claim never gets off the ground. Appellant contends that because the “criminality behind” his Article 107 convictions was not the statements themselves, but rather the fact that appellant made…

United States v. Taylor, NMCCA 30 April 2020 is a government appeal of a judge’s ruling to suppress evidence. [T]he military judge granted a Defense motion to suppress evidence resulting from the searches of 12 of Appellee’s electronic devices. We are asked to decide whether we have jurisdiction over this appeal and, if so, whether…

GA: Arrest for sex offense wasn’t PC to believe digital storage device on person had evidence; SW suppressed Posted on April 30, 2020 by Hall Defendant was arrested for aggravated child molestation and aggravated sodomy, and he had a digital storage device on him. Police sought a search warrant for the storage device, but the…

In United States v. Vance, ACCA 2018, the addressed RFGOS after changes to UCMJ but without any AR changes. It’s a little complicated so read the opinion. Today we consider what happens when, in violation of Article 60, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the convening authority sets aside the findings and sentence in a…

Stewart v. SecNav. One of perhaps many to come in which Jim McPherson is sued in his OFFICIAL capacity. In this case, Marine Corps Officer Nicholas Stewart challenges the Navy Secretary’s refusal to grant him a waiver of statutory requirements that govern his eligibility for incentive pay as “arbitrary, capricious, . . . or otherwise…

Navy Military Justice Act 2016 Training guides Prof. Dave Schlueter has Reforming Military Justice: An Analysis of the Military Justice Act 2016. As always, TJAGSA has an excellent Deskbook which addresses aspects of the MJA-2016, The Act is here. Some other resources are available at NIMJ. The Military Justice Review Group summary with some interesting…

Fewer and fewer people these days remember the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who died in 1970. For those who do, the name brings a smile. A “Rube Goldberg” contraption is a piece of machinery with many moving parts of various types, maniacally designed to accomplish some simple goal. Thanks to Congress, the…

Is DNA Evidence Relevant? UCLA School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 20-03 4 Pages Posted: 12 Feb 2020 Kenneth W. Graham University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – School of Law Date Written: February 10, 2020 Abstract In admitting DNA sample taken at the crime scene in 2010 to compare it with a…

Decryption Originalism: The Lessons of Burr 134 Harvard Law Review (Forthcoming) 58 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2020 Orin S. Kerr University of California, Berkeley School of Law Date Written: February 6, 2020 Abstract The Supreme Court is likely to rule soon on how the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination applies to compelled decryption of a…

The Evidence Rules that Convict the Innocent Cornell Law Review, Forthcoming 51 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2020 Jeffrey Bellin William & Mary Law School Date Written: March 2, 2020 Abstract Over the past decades, DNA testing has uncovered hundreds of examples of the most important type of trial errors: innocent defendants convicted of serious crimes…