Court-Martial Trial Practice

The New York Court of Appeals decided Weaver v. People, No. 53 (May 12, 2009), holding that the NY Constitution prohibits the use of GPS transmitters on vehicles without a warrant, following other state courts analyzing the issue under their constitutions. FourthAmendment blog.

How To Write Your Brief So That The Judge Will Hate You

Here’s a new law review article to go along with my rants about how prosecution expert and forensic evidence can be biased, it’s difficult to deal with, and the system allows the problem. Volume 95, Issue 1 Brandon L. Garrett and Peter J. Neufeld, Invalid Forensic Science Testimony and Wrongful Convictions, 95 Va. L. Rev.…

The University of Pennsylvania PENNumbra has an interesting dialogue about plea bargaining, the unlimited unregulated powers of prosecutors, and those who might be innocent, but plead guilty anyway. There are three points of view. Of the most interesting seems to be that innocent accused’s may plea guilty to avoid a wrongful conviction and increased sentence…

We talk a lot about appellate issues and whether they should be raised. Of course in the military we have United States v. Grostefon. There is also talk about changing the post-trial process and possibly placing more responsibility on the trial defense counsel to initially raise appellate issues (a broadening of Palenius). So here is…

Andrew Taslitz has a comment on Concurring Opinions today: Government Lawyers’ Ethical Obligations and the War on Terror. This piece could apply equally to trial counsel and staff judge advocates, as well as defense counsel. The comment is about the current call(s) for action against the Bush administration lawyers and torture memos. These stories stress…

Been a while since I’ve posted something related to technology and this century. (I should note a red book sighting the other day at NLSO WNY.) Here is an interesting article. Of course those of us with the offending L1 GPS systems are quite aware of running into brick walls or cul-de-sacs due to inaccuracies.…

CAAF has issued an opinion in United States v. Campos, __ M.J. ____ (C.A.A.F. 2009). The court was unanimous, although Judge Baker filed a separate concurring opinion. This is an opinion that essentially discusses the inadmissible evidence thrust down an accused’s throat through a stipulation as part of a pretrial agreement. Basically, if you stipulate,…

FLETC’s The Informer is out for this month. In addition to commentary on Ventris and Gant, here are a couple of summaries of two computer search cases. 10th CIRCUIT United States v. Otero, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 9001, April 28, 2009. The modern development of the personal computer and its ability to store and intermingle…

In some, non-U.S., police circles it’s called gilding the lily. But you are not supposed to get caught. Officer Investigated For Perjury After DUI Case Falls Apart, By Dan Morse, Washington Post, 7 May 2009. Although gilding the lily is really more subtle than this. It’s those oft remembered micro-facts months after the case, arrest,…