Court-Martial Trial Practice

United States v. Rivera may not be the case to watch after all if the analysis is correct. Lyle Denniston, Analysis: How many ways to lose a case?, SCOTUSBlog, 23 February 2009. In summary, By the time Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked a government lawyer which of several ways he would prefer the Supreme Court…

In his first public statements since a 2005 double-murder arrest in Iraq, now-acquitted Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez of Rensselaer County said Tuesday he was “very, very innocent” of the slayings — yet expected a guilty verdict. This is reported at Veterans for Common-Sense.org, and is a reprint of: Robert Gavin, Army Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez,…

Prof. Colin Miller, The Sense Of The Past: Third Circuit Corrects Worst Present Sense Impression Ruling I Have Ever Seen, 23 February 2009. United States v Green, 2009 WL 385423 (3rd Cir. 2009). over Green’s vigorous objection, the Government was permitted to introduce as substantive evidence a statement that Brown purportedly made some 50 minutes…

Expert Can Testify About “Role-Playing In … Sexually Explicit Conversations On The Internet”, Federal Evidence Review, 25 September 2008. For those of us who have done internet solicitation cases, the concept of role-playing and lying amongst participants is a known serious issue. These cases, as have mine, usually come up because the client shows up…

An important case involving the seating of a jury (Members panel) was argued today at the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is a summary of the case from SCOTUSBlog. Argument Preview: Jury selection dynamics. Here are the relevant background documents in Rivera v. Illinois, via SCOTUSWiki. The transcript of oral argument should be posted in a…

Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2009 Is Introduced In the Senate (S. 445). Federal Evidence Review notes that Sen. Specter has re-introduced a bill that protects attorney-client privileged and work-product privileged information from use by prosecutors. This may, or may not, assist with the current issue about military email “access” issues.

The defense wins one. Actually, yesterday I had the pleasure of being a semi-final judge for the National Security Law Moot Court Competition hosted at George Washington Univ. Law School. 23 teams from law schools around the country competed. The two issues before the “U.S. Supreme Court” were: The constitutionality of a civilian being prosecuted…

Can Self-Authenticated, Certified Business Records Violate The Confrontation Clause? Federal Evidence Review, 30 July 2008. Pointing to United States v. Hemphill, 514 F.3d 1350 (D.C. Cir. 2008), the reviewers posit that Fed. R. Evid. 902 (Mil. R. Evid.) leads to “testimony” in violation of Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004).

Here, courtesy of Federal Evidence Review, is the proposed change to Fed. R. Evid. 804(b)(3). Should this become the federal rule, it will become the military Rule 18 months later, absent affirmative action to the contrary. It’s my understanding that the public comment period has closed.