Court-Martial Trial Practice

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has granted a petition on the following issue: WHETHER APPELLANT RECEIVED INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE WHEN DEFENSE COUNSEL FAILED TO INTRODUCE EVIDENCE WHICH STRONGLY CORROBORATED THE DEFENSE THEORY THAT THE ALLEGATIONS IN THIS CASE WERE FALSE. Here is a link to the AFCCA opinion in United States v. McIntosh,…

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Ray Chandler announced this week that senior enlisted personnel would be rated on their ability to police online social media activity, in what many are nicknaming the “Facebook bullet” on the non-commissioned officer report (NCOER). So reports Duffelblog. I’ve always been of the view that there is a little or…

“[W]e recognize that electronic communications are susceptible to fabrication and manipulation.” Campbell v. State, 382 S.W.3d 545, 550 (Tex. App. 2012). Campbell and a number of other state and federal cases were support for my objection to text messages in a case this week. I had a 120 which as usual had text messages as…

Professor Colin Miller has published two timely and important essays related to the introduction of social media evidence for its truth. Contents May Have Shifted: Disentangling the Best Evidence Rule from the Rule Against Hearsay, 71 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. Online 180 (2014). Here is the abstract: The rule against hearsay covers a statement…

In Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, by Ray Raphael, one of his issues of inaccurate historical reporting is about Paul Revere. The book is incisive, well-written, and well worth the read. So it is in this context that I mention Michael Greenberg’s, The Court-Martial of Paul Revere: A Son of Liberty and…

If a witness testifies at trial the traffic light was red, the accused may ask if they told the police officer the light was green. And, depending on the answer the accused may offer extrinsic evidence of the inconsistency. This is a clear prior inconsistent statement. Usually there is no trouble identifying the issue. But…

The Marine Corps Times reports the court-martial conviction of a female guard at Miramar Naval Consolidated Brig, CA. Kohlman’s misconduct came to light when the prisoner, Shane Bardes, came forward last year with a detailed statement alleging she and other guards had taken advantage of his status as a prisoner to engage in various acts…

At the 2015 Innocence Summit, the nation’s leading prosecutors, researchers, defense attorneys, citizen activists, exonerees, and others will come together to debate how the Innocence Movement can overcome old obstacles and achieve new successes. Theme: Forging Best Practices for Innocence Reform Why: Because our criminal justice system needs to apply evidence-based best practices in order…

Please see the NIMJ announcement of the Barry and Jenkins writing awards at this link. Kevin J. Barry Award for Excellence in Military Legal Studies. This award recognizes an outstanding article published in an academic or professional journal, and honors the memory of an outstanding scholar and peerless advocate of reform: Kevin J. Barry, a…