Court-Martial Trial Practice

It appears we are hard-wired to believe stories. So actually requiring us to believe isn’t that hard–except it seems in sexual assault cases. Everyone is aware that the military requires any sexual assault complainant to be believed. A cynic will say, that this is required despite evidence showing falsity in the complaint. A cynic could…

I have used the title of a new paper by Prof. Richard Leo. Of the 1,705 post-conviction DNA and non-DNA exonerations that have occurred from 1989 to the end of 2015, approximately 13 percent of these wrongful convictions were due to false confessions, and virtually all of these occurred in either homicide or rape cases.…

The news today is of President Obama’s 18 December 2015 pardons and clemency actions. Of the many, a quick look does not show any from court-martial convicted applicants. Pardon Attorney.

We are all familiar of Congressional and command efforts to address military sexual assaults. Many of the revisions to the UCMJ and the MCM flowing from these efforts are appropriate, reasonable, or meaningless. However, what does appear consistent is the failure of Congress to recognize that it has a concomitant duty to the accused to…

Here is the petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court in: Schloff v. United States. The CAAF opinion is here. The ACCA opinion is here. Interestingly, we have also learned that the government is now processing the case for an SJAR and CA action.

NBC reports that SGT B. Bergdahl is the subject of the second Season, and the first pod is available today. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-bergdahl-released/serial-season-2-debuts-bowe-bergdahl-telling-desertion-story-n477596 The popular podcast “Serial” launched its second season Thursday, shining a spotlight on the mysterious disappearance of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl — and allowing him to be heard publicly for the first time…

It’s called a pen or keys on a computer keyboard–use one or two, or three, or . . . . Senators demand transparency in US military justice system These words are great. They should be acted upon. Senators ACT. Can you perhaps put something in the next NDAA or get some sort of exception to…

Stars & Stripes reports: If I were Petraeus’s lawyer or your lawyer and got a similar result I’d be ecstatic, as would you be. But the other part of me asks what I should tell you the young enlisted client, the NCO, the junior officer, the senior officer, in a similar situation. I fear you…

Although we question the prosecutorial judgment in charging adultery in conjunction with an instance of sexual assault, we find the evidence is legally and factually sufficient to sustain the conviction in this particular case. Article 66(c), UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 866(c). United States v. Dockery, No. 38624, n. 1 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. 2 December…

In preparing the petition for Schloff, we looked to the amount of cases coming through the system related to prosecutions under UCMJ art. 120. The Army is “reporting” about 60% of cases for last year were sexual assault/120 cases. We have not been able to gain similar “information” from the Air Force or Department of…