Court-Martial Trial Practice

Read this article about a New Zealand army prosecution. What’s different about it?

In United States v. Gladue, __ M.J. ___ (C.A.A.F. 2009), has underscored the importance of understanding the terms of a PTA and the effect on appellate was well as trial issues. In Gladue the accused, as is common, agreed to waive any waivable motions. The MJ discussed with appellant a number of motions covered by…

The LA Times on line is reporting that the NMCCA, sitting en banc, has: The Marine Corps appealed the panel’s ruling to the full nine-member court. But the court Tuesday night rejected the appeal without command. The Marine Corps can continue its appeals or attempt to reinstate charges against Chessani by launching a new investigation…

Here is a piece on Kevin from the 28 April 2009, Washington Post.

Here is an interesting piece by Pamla M. Sterner, The Stolen Valor Act 2005. 120 STAT. 3266 PUBLIC LAW 109–437—DEC. 20, 2006. Vietnam Veteran Charged With Violation of the Stolen Valor Act of 2005. Signed into law in 2006. These type of cases are certainly the most difficult of all within the military.

The Kansas Court of Appeals continues the tradition of citation to anecdotal legal authority. See The cult of Sir Cloudesly Shovell, CAAFLog, 21 April 2009. It appears that the Kansas Court of Appeals cited the little watched short running show “Branded” as a basis to overturn a trial judges requirement that a convicted child abuser…

We are all familiar with Rock v. Arkansas, 483 U.S. 44 (1987), in which a per se bar against hypnotically refreshed testimony of an accused was held unconstitutional. Prof. Colin Miller reports that the state of Illnois finds that a per se bar can be applied to witnesses other than the accused. I Put A…

Here is an interesting, very fact specific, federal case in which the forensic examination of a computer for child pornography was suppressed. The accused had admitted possessing child pornography, showed the police his computer, but refused a search of it. The police took the computer. Then it sat around for about three weeks before the…

Here is an article brought to our attention by FourthAmendment.com. A thoughtful article about the Supreme Court’s “seizure” doctrine, so much a part of the all encompassing reasonable suspicion standard, by David K. Kessler is Free to Leave? An Empirical Look at the Fourth Amendment’s Seizure Standard, 99 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 51 (2009).…

There are two items in this month’s Journal of Law and Human Behavior with value and relevance to trial practice: an item on interviewing, and an item on how juries make decisions. Here are the titles, more later. Divine, Buddenheim, Houp, Studebaker, and Stolle, Strength of Evidence, Evidentiary Influences, and the Liberation Hypothesis, Data from…