Court-Martial Trial Practice

One of the discussions ongoing about military sexual assault cases is the breadth of conduct meant to capture, and potential ambiguities in how the law seeks to define a crime versus boorish or otherwise inappropriate behavior. Here is an interesting piece based on developments in Canada. Implied Consent & Sexual Assault: Introduction, Michael Plaxton, University…

There has been much talk in the military justice community about prosecutor ethics and how they may clash with the commander and Congressional desires to prosecute and convict those accused of sexual assault. It is difficult to decide if pressure (proper or otherwise) leads prosecutors to err, or whether it is inexperience or just a…

Kyndra C. Cleveland , Jodi Quas and Thomas D. Lyon (University of California, Irvine , University of California, Irvine – Department of Criminology, Law and Society and University of Southern California – Gould School of Law) have posted Valence, Implicated Actor, and Children’s Acquiescence to False Suggestions (Forthcoming, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology) on SSRN.…

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…