Court-Martial Trial Practice

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…

Prof. Colin Miller has published an article about Fed. (Mil.) R. Evid. 606. Prof. Miller argues that, “Rule 606(b) to preclude allegations of juror bias violate criminal defendants’ right to present a defense.” Dismissed with Prejudice: Why Application of the Anti-Jury Impeachment Rule to Allegations of Racial, Religious, or Other Bias Violates the Right to…

For those for who baseball is a drug, here is a good piece from Federal Evidence Review. Not only is this a baseball story, but it also has some teaching points about the law of evidence in drug prosecution cases. On Eve Of The Barry Bonds Perjury Trial, Government Appeals Evidence Ruling, FER, 2 March…

Psychology & Crime News has an interesting post about forensic linguistics in crime detection. Using forensic linguistics in the criminal justice system, P&CN, 28 February 2009. John Olsson of the Forensic Linguistics Institute is one of the UK’s most experienced forensic linguists, with over 300 criminal cases in his portfolio. He kindly agreed to answer…

United States v. Hayes, __ U.S. ___ , No. 07–608, decided 24 February 2009. The Supreme Court has resolved a issue relating to qualifying convictions for firearm possession prohibitions post-conviction. The federal Gun Control Act of 1968, 18 U. S. C. §921 et seq., has long prohibited possession of a firearm by any person convicted…