Court-Martial Trial Practice

While doing some research on Wegner’s Ironic Process Theory, I came across this case–Volkmer v. United States, 13 F.2d 594 (6th Cir. 1926). The other ground presents a more serious question. It is based on the concluding argument of the assistant district attorney, during which the following occurred: “Assistant District Attorney: A skunk is always…

USNI news reports https://news.usni.org/2018/08/09/navy-to-retire-poor-performing-senior-commanders-and-captains Read NAVADMIN 193/18 NOTICE OF CONVENING FY-19 ACTIVE-DUTY NAVY COMMANDER AND CAPTAIN SELECTIVE EARLY RETIREMENT BOARDS Readers will be aware of the attention given to senior Navy officers who are getting in trouble for misconduct or poor performance. The collision cases may also be a factor behind the following initiative. With…

As this case demonstrates, the novelty of an assimilative charging decision under Article 134 often wears off during the course of an appeal, Says ACCA in a footnote to United States v. Meredith, 7 August 2018. Specification 1 of Charge II alleged appellant violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 10 U.S.C. § 1030,…

From friend BW. State commission calls blood-spatter testimony in murder case ‘not … scientifically supported’ By Pamela Colloff, ProPublica, July 24, 201 An influential state commission said the blood-spatter analysis used to convict a former Texas high school principal of murdering his wife in 1985 was “not accurate or scientifically supported” and the expert who…

Navy Times reports the NMCCA decision in United States v. Saugen. “Ensign Joseph P. Saugen, 26, remains in San Diego’s Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to two specifications of possessing child pornography and another for distributing the illicit videos.” In Saugen, the Appellant executed a pretrial agreement. One of…

For the past two years, the Defense Security Service (DSS) has been advising security officers to submit periodic reinvestigations for Tier 5 (Top Secret) investigations at the 6 year mark, rather than 5 years. The move was an effort to reduce the growing security clearance backlog, and allow the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) to…

The CGCCA is now posting appellate briefs in pending cases. An excellent additional resources for trial and appellate counsel. https://www.uscg.mil/Resources/Legal/Court-of-Criminal-Appeals/Court-of-Criminal-Appeals-Appellate-Briefs/

Seems to me that the best practice is to raise any possible UCI claims prior to trial on the merits–depending on when you learn of the alleged UCI. The general rule is the defense does not waive UCI by failing to raise it at trial. Id. at 193. This rule, however, is not absolute. The…

In Forrester, our superior court clarified that the unit of prosecution for possessing child pornography is tied to the material containing illicit images, and “not the quantity or variety of visual depictions.” Forrester, 76 M.J. at 481. In Mobley, we held when multiple illicit images or videos are possessed on a single computer, the computer…

Self-assessment. As a supervisor of counsel, I would ask them to come to me after trial and discuss what they think the three best and worst things they did. I was intent on mentoring them to reinforce the good and see if, any truly bad issues could be resolved in the future. Like you, I…