Court-Martial Trial Practice

If you, like me and some of my colleagues, have personal experiences from military clients who commit, get stopped in the act, or consider suicide while pending court-martial, you are facing a difficult challenge. My first was a client I was representing on appeal who hung himself in the SHU at the USDB. Sadly, I’d…

22 September is the anniversary of Nathan Hale being executed for spying against the British forces. In New York City on September 22, 1776, Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying. A graduate of Yale University, Hale joined a Connecticut regiment in 1775 and…

https://constitution.congress.gov/

Shawn Boyne, Pre-Trial Procedures in Criminal Cases. Prof. Boyne (Indiana U., Robert H. McKinney Sch. of Law), has an interesting read. Does this seem familiar? In the past two decades, scholars have not only questioned whether the “contest”between the parties is a fair one, but also debated whether prosecutors possess a “conviction mentality” that undermines…

The Center for Military Readiness has this “report.” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, nominated to become Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has become the face of injustice done to military personnel who encounter unproved allegations of sexual assault. Accusations that cannot be substantiated are unjust and often career-ending, but they are not…

Corteen & Stelle, A Criminal Injustice System? Sex Offender Suspects and Defendants. 39 LIVERPOOL L. REV. 265 (2018). Abstract The purpose of this paper is to open up a discussion regarding the potential shift from the presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt regarding those suspected of or charged with sexual offending. It is…

Elisabetta Grande (2009) “Dances of Justice: Tango and Rumba in Comparative Criminal Procedure,” Global Jurist: Vol. 9: Iss. 4 (Frontiers), Article 6. Available at: http://www.bepress.com/gj/vol9/iss4/art6 Ms. Grande some interesting reading comparing the judicial process we experience in common law countries and the experiences of lawyers in Continental Europe. More than thirty years ago, Professor Damaška…

Tales of the Tipsy Coachman: Being Right for the Wrong Reason – The Tipsy Coachman is Alive and Well and Living in Florida

Ooops. When you object to something you are asking that the members not hear a piece of testimony or see a piece of evidence–right? Right? So why then do you let the Trial Counsel (or defense counsel) discuss that with the military judge in front of the members? I see this on a regular basis…

From Prof. Doug Berman’s excellent Sentencing Law & Policy. Four+ years ago as noted in this post, the US Supreme Court issued a short per curiam summary reversals in Grady v. North Carolina, No. 14-593 (S. Ct. March 30, 2015) (available here), in which the Court clarified and confirmed that the Fourth Amendment is applicable…