Court-Martial Trial Practice

A couple of interesting items from John Wesley Hall’s excellent Fourth Amendment blog. Without something to go on, the court declines to ascribe a supposed error in an address as a mere typo. Moreover, the affidavit fails to provide any nexus to defendant and the place to be searched, and the good faith exception is…

Rossmo, Kim and Pollock, Joycelyn, Confirmation Bias and Other Systemic Causes of Wrongful Convictions: A Sentinel Events Perspective (June 28, 2019). Northeastern University Law Review, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2019. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3413922. Tokson, Matthew J., The Emerging Principles of Fourth Amendment Privacy (July 23, 2019). George Washington Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN:…

Going through some old files I came across the Excerpts from a letter which the Powell Committee recommended The Judge Advocate General of the Army send to officers newly appointed as general court-martial convening authorities. (Committee on the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Good Order and Discipline in the Army: Report to Honorable Wilber M.…

Here is something from good friend Don Rehkopf as a reminder to defense counsel. 1) For anyone representing a client with Art. 120, offenses that will trigger a Dismissal or DD upon conviction; or 2) Anyone representing a client where there may be a chance of being sentenced to a Dismissal or DD; To avoid…

Confirmation Bias and Other Systemic Causes of Wrongful Convictions: A Sentinel Events Perspective, By D. Kim Rossmo and Joycelyn M. Pollock. Their study suggests that 37% of wrongful convictions result from confirmation bias. Table 1: Causal Factors (≥ 10) Causal Factor Confirmation bias 37 Tunnel vision 24 High-profile crime/media attention 23 Management/supervision issues 22 Careless/incompetent…

Defense counsel: You have an enlisted client who is retirement eligible: E-6 to E-9. What is their retirement check, assuming they are in a position to retire after trial? Before you answer, please read 10 U. S. C. 1407, especially para. (f). Now–E-8 reduced to E-4, what is the retired pay? My answer, his last…

Once again it is the duty of the defense counsel to police the prosecutors not for the prosecutors to police themselves. That is one of the conclusions from the new decision—United States v. Voorhees, https://www.armfor.uscourts.gov/newcaaf/opinions/2018OctTerm/180372.pdf, just decided by the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. In Voorhees, the trial counsel (prosecutor) tried…

Maybe this trial counsel and his leadership aren’t so great? Will the AF allow him to remain in trial counsel duties? As trial counsel tried to establish his bona fides with the court members during voir dire, he introduced himself as an attorney of considerable experience and gravitas: I’m a senior trial counsel assigned to…

Military prisoners may go on MSRP at their MRD unless going into parole. There are many conditions and some consequences for failure to follow the rules. With that in mind, we may need to pay attention and give some thought to: United States v. Haymond, decided today (26 June 2019) by the Supremes. The opinion…

Sommers & Bohm, The Voluntariness of Voluntary Consent: Consent Searches and Psychology of Compliance. 128 YALE L. J. 1962 (2019). Consent-based searches are by far the most ubiquitous form of search undertaken by police. A key legal inquiry in these cases is whether consent was granted voluntarily. This Essay suggests that fact finders’ assessments of…