Court-Martial Trial Practice

No, not that Army running thing. Hash Values Used To Confirm Seized Video Clips And Images h/t federalevidence review

A cynic will remark that the government’s argument on an issue can be reduced to, “we are the government, we win.” I have noted that “talismanic incantations” from the government should be challenged as just that and the government should be challenged to actually lay out the evidence or specific theory to support their argument.…

The public comment period on a pending amendment to the business record and public record hearsay exceptions under FRE 803(6), (7), (8) expires next week on February 15, 2013. To date, there appears to be no opposition or controversy to the amendment as no public comments have been submitted. The pending amendment concerns the trustworthiness…

Michael H. Graham (University of Miami – School of Law) has posted two articles on “other crimes” evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) on SSRN. The first is Other Crimes, Wrongs, or Culpable Acts, Fed.R.Evid. 404(B): ‘Defining’ a New Paradigm (Criminal Law Bulletin, Vol. 47, p. 998, 2011). Here is the abstract: Commentators addressing…

I was not surprised about the thoughts expressed in this survey. What did surprise me was the apparent extent of the feeling. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/survey-male-marines-fear-false-sexual-assault-accusations-with-women-in-combat/2013/02/01/d906ee80-6cce-11e2-8f4f-2abd96162ba8_story.html

Eyewitness Memory for People and Events (Chapter 25) Gary L. Wells Iowa State University, Department of Psychology Elizabeth F. Loftus University of California, Irvine – Department of Psychology and Social Behavior January 16, 2013 Handbook of Psychology, Vol. 11, 2013, Forensic Psychology, Chapter 25, R.K. Otto and & I.B. Weiner (Eds), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley…

In United States v. Lindsey, __ F.3d __ (8th Cir. Jan. 9, 2013) (Nos. 11–3485, 11–3513), the court found that notice of intent to use some 404(b) evidence was timely and reasonable. The notice was given twice, a year before trial and again earlier than 30 days from trial. In assessing the reasonableness of the…

Here is an interesting published decision from ACCA in United States v. Pleasant. The case has a warning, and a reminder of what we often tell clients about testifying. In this case the issue being whether or not the testimony is helpful or hurts, and as ACCA considers: When an accused testifies on his own…

Federal Evidence Review has this list of issues they see as important in the coming year. Note item 2 was decided by the Supremes 9 January, with a ruling that the accused bears the burden to establish withdrawal from conspiracy.

I read Federal Evidence Review daily. It’s an excellent resource on the federal rules of evidence. Here is their “top ten” list for 2012. Obviously not all the points are relevant to MJ practitioners.