Court-Martial Trial Practice

In 2003, Congress directed the Secretary of Defense to produce a Model State Code of Military Justice. This Code is intended to be adopted by all of the states for use when dealing with misconduct by personnel in Title 32 status. The idea is to try and have a “uniform” state code rather than 50+…

In addition to action under MEJA involving contractors in Iraq, a civilian spouse in Okinawa is headed for a U.S. District Court trial for the death of his stepson on Okinawa. David Allen, Accused stepdad awaits transfer, Stars &Stripes, 6 March 2009. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000The MEJA was approved by Congress and…

In writing a piece this weekend I came across this excellent article by Pat Grant on Extraordinary Relief, it’s worth reading and filing in your trial notebook. Captain Patrick B. Grant, ARTICLE: Extraordinary Relief: A Primer for Trial Practitioners, 2008 Army Law. 30 (November, 2008).

Fifth Amendment Privilege was not violated by compelling the defendant to provide an unencrypted version of his laptop drive containing suspected child pornography to the government, in In re Boucher, (D.Vt. Feb. 19, 2009) (No. 2:06-mj-91) (2009 WL 424718) (unpublished) (“Boucher II“) Can the government compel an individual to provide a password to examine the…

Prof. Colin Miller has posted on how to and who may authenticate a persons voice, Follow My Voice: Seventh Circuit Finds That Voice Authentication Doesn’t Need To Be Done By An Expert. Federal Rule of Evidence 901(b)(5), which states that the requirement of authentication or identification as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by…

The February Army Lawyer is on-line. There are four articles of interest to military practitioner’s. 2008 New Developments in Self-Incrimination New Developments in Sixth Amendment Confrontation and Jurisdiction Building a Better Mousetrap or Just a More Convoluted One?:A Look at Three Major Developments in Substantive Criminal Law “Planning is Everything” Purpose Driven Trial Preparation

No Ethics Charges Filed Against Prosecutor Who Tried to Help Defense, ABA Journal blog.

Just when you were starting to worry that there wouldn’t be work — along comes DoD with a new policy about officer and senior enlisted civilian misconduct. The policy requires that officers and senior enlisted inform their command about civilian convictions. The policy directs that the Services issue (punitive) regulations and a reporting system. More…

Here is John C. Yoo’s October 23, 2001 memo on the use of U.S. troops to conduct military warrantless raids inside the U.S. here. tip: FourthAmendment blog.

[I quote] If you’re a briefwriter who, for whatever reason, rarely gets the opportunity to present oral argument, take heart in this quotation by a Fifth Circuit legend: Oral argument, as such, is rarely, if ever, so essential to elemental fairness as to orbit to a constitutional apogee. Indeed, the practice of Courts of disposing…