Court-Martial Trial Practice

Here is an interesting piece from Wired. Bruce Schneier, Security Matters, Wired, 26 March 2009. The piece talks about the challenges of maintaining privacy and a “Katz” level of privacy in an increasingly wired society. In the United States, the concept of “expectation of privacy” matters because it’s the constitutional test, based on the Fourth…

Here’s a filler piece from Slate.Nina S. Rastogi, Murder, She Wrote: How forensic handwriting identification works, Slate, 26 March 2009.Here’s an interesting standard for expert testimony admissibility: According to the handful of studies on the subject, a trained examiner will be correct more often than a layman. One 1997 study asked both professionals and amateurs…

A lot of times we get caught up in the need for an “expert” witness. If you have an expert witness the person is testifying under Mil. R. Evid. 702. True, the expert can “get-in” more information than other witnesses, but do you always need an expert. Federal Evidence blog reminds us that lay witnesses…

Are you like me — you need to send or receive large files via email. If that’s the case — the law enforcement ROI, is a good example — here is a free, experimental way to transfer large files without having to send them by email. Most email accounts have size limits on what can…

Is there about to be another shift in interrogations law from the Supreme Court. Earlier we mentioned several commentators on the subject of how the “new” court is changing personal rights when faced with investigators. See an earlier post: Exclusionary Rule — To be Dead Letter Law — Possibly? Court questions Michigan v. Jackson from…

United States v. Forney, __ M.J. ___ (C.A.A.F. March 26, 2009). This is a case where the appellant was convicted on charges and evidence for a situation later declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002). This is the issue of actual versus virtual CP —…

United States v. Clayton, __ M.J. ___ (C.A.A.F. March 26, 2009). In this case one police officer testified, and he was allowed to testify about his personal knowledge of drugs found. However, the military judge also allowed the witness to lay a foundation for a redacted translation of a German police report of drugs found…

Persuasive Cross-Examination: Juries don’t like it when you cross over from tough to just plain nasty, ABA Journal – Law News Now, http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/persuasive_cross-examination/ (last visited Mar. 27, 2009).

This is a waivable issue, as SCOTUSBlog reports. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that, if federal prosecutors violated a plea bargain with an accused who pleads guilty, that must be brought out at the trial and thus cannot be challenged for the first time on appeal. On a 7-2 vote, the Court cleared up a…

Here is the oral argument transcript from United States v. Denedo, argued at the Supreme Court this week. Also, here is the link to CAAFLog’s review of the argument.