The Army has postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday for Staff Sgt. David Bram, who faces charges of conspiracy, striking another soldier, cruelty, dereliction of duty and impeding an investigation while serving in southern Afghanistan.

Military.com reports (no surprise here, the surprise would be not seeking a capital referral):

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s lawyer [Mr. Galligan] says he expects the Army to seek the death penalty for the Fort Hood shootings.

While UPI reports:

Galligan is likely to raise the “good soldier” defense, in part by introducing favorable officer evaluations. The defense also could contend Hasan had a mental breakdown.

Military.com reports:

Twenty months ago, Navy Sailor Darren Mackie, 22, killed his ex-girlfriend, Navy Sailor Caitlin Elizabeth Trask, 20, with a single bullet to the back of the head. Her parents are still waiting for the Navy to dishonorably discharge him.

I recently posted on that case here.

KansasCity.com reports:

An airman accused of having unprotected sex without telling partners he was HIV positive faces a[n Article 32, UCMJ, hearing 5 October].

SCOTUSBlog reports on an issue that might affect military prisoners:

Buried in this morning’s order list is an order that may be of special interest to members of the Supreme Court bar who represent indigent parties in the Court. The Court denied the motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP) and for appointment of counsel in Sossamon v. Texas, No. 08-1438, a case being argued in November. The denial may signal a change in the Court’s criteria for granting IFP status at the merits stage in some cases.

SCOTUSBlog reports here on the issue of the court and its intersection with the “Digital Age.”

Opening a new Term on Monday, the Supreme Court once again indicated that it is reluctant to get deeply involved in exploring new issues about privacy in the Digital Age. Without comment, it turned aside an appeal by the state of Ohio, asking the Justices to give police wider authority to check out the contents of a private cell phone they obtained during an arrest. The case was one of nearly 2,000 that the Court refused to hear in its new Term. It granted no new cases beyond the 14 it added to its decision docket last Tuesday. The Court has said explictly that it does not yet have a broad enough understanding of new electronic technology to make major pronouncements on the constitutional issues that are arising around it.

Recordnet.com reports, by Michael Fitzgerald, “Medics bravery in battle finally recognized.”

The Army drafted Yagi on Feb. 19, 1942 – the very day Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, the Japanese deportation. Suddenly, the hard-working Yagis had no constitutional rights. At first, Yagi refused to fight. It wasn’t right. The Army initiated a court martial. Yagi relented. He would go – but as a medic.

In 2008 family members decided to look into their secretive relations military past.

And made a discovery. Tom Yagi was supposed to have received the Silver Star.

Army Times reports:

All Spc. Bryan Roudebush wanted was a legal high. Trying to get some relaxation, he sat on a balcony in Waikiki, Hawaii, and took five hits off a small pipe packed with a drug called spice. He stepped back inside, dozed off on the couch beside his girlfriend Ola Peyton, and then — as if in a trance — he beat Peyton senseless and nearly pushed her off the 11th floor balcony.

The Peoplesvoice.org reports:

Mickey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation have been fighting the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs for a very long time. Weinstein’s group is working to restore normal constitutional rights and practices in a military organization that has been hijacked by Christian Zionists who call themselves “Evangelicals.” The idea is simple. To get into the Academy or to remain there, un-raped, unbeaten, you have to attend regular “bible study” groups and continually mumble prayers. No Jews allowed. No homosexuals allowed. No Muslims allowed. It doesn’t stop there[.]

See here for prior posts on this subject.

The Army has launched a crackdown on the drug spice at least nine commands in response to a spike in usage among soldiers. A designer drug that mimics marijuana, spice is legal in most states, and is available for sale in smoke shops and online for around $50 for three ounces. What’s more, spice is undetectable by most urinalyses. The Army is also keeping a watchful eye on another noncontrolled substance called salvia, which is a hallucinogen.

Spice has been outlawed in 13 states, including Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and, as of July, Hawaii, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. Several variants of spice are illegal in Germany and some other European nations.

In the Army, use of noncontrolled intoxicants, including natural substances, is prohibited under Army Regulation 600-85, which governs the service’s substance abuse program. Punishments can arise under Article 92, UCMJ, for an orders violation.

They are sold under catchy names like Sage of the Seers, Magic Mint and Thang, designer drugs that can be legally sold at shops and online in most cases. But due to their increasing use by Sailors and the effects they cause, these designer drugs have been added to the U.S. Navy’s zero-tolerance drug-abuse policy. Navy medical labs have new tests for the designer drugs, said Cmdr. Florenzio Yuzon, staff judge advocate for Navy Region Southeast.

Here is the link to NAVADMIN 108/10. And here is some additional information that is being put out to commands from NMPC.

UPI.com reports:

The family of an Ohio soldier who committed suicide in Iraq says members feel let down by the punishment for four men accused of hazing their son.

Omaha.com reports that:

A 21-year-old Offutt Air Force Base airman accused of shooting to death a fellow airman during a “trust” game has been charged in military court. Airman 1st Class Corey D. Hernandez of Walnut, Calif., was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with unpremeditated murder while engaged in an inherently dangerous act, concealing physical evidence and furnishing false and material information to a peace officer. The maximum punishment for all charges is life in prison, a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay and allowances and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade. Hernandez had faced charges in Sarpy County Court of manslaughter and use of a weapon to commit a felony. The charges were dismissed, and the case was transferred to the Air Force court.

A new order from Marine Corps Forces Command explicitly prohibits Marines from using a number of legal substances, including the herbal blend Spice, to achieve an altered state of consciousness or a druglike “high.” . . . The order, dated Jan. 27, bars Marines from using, possessing, attempting to possess, manufacturing or introducing onto military installations any of 10 substances that cause “legal highs.” Spice and salvia divinorum, including their many aliases, are at the top of the list.

JDNews.com reports.

According to MARFORPAC Order 5355.2, the substances known as Spice and Salvia Divinorum, while not listed as a controlled substance and highly accessible by service members, are hereby prohibited to all service members assigned within the MARFORPAC chain of command.

USMC website.

A 20-year-old Fort Lewis soldier has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of his 16-year-old girlfriend in his barracks.

A military judge ruled Friday that Pvt. Timothy Bennitt was guilty of “aiding and abetting” Leah King’s wrongful use of the painkiller oxymorphone and anxiety pill Xanax.

Army Times reports.

After the verdict, Pvt. Timothy Bennitt, 20, was sentenced to almost six years in military confinement, a reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge from the military.

The News Tribune reports.

Spice and other alternative “smokes.” As this article indicates, the military continues to prosecute service-members for smoking legal substances that cause reactions and effects similar to illegal drugs (and alcohol). However, alcohol, the Number One drug of abuse and a well documented killer and injurer of people and damager of property, continues to be legal (for sale on military installations, storage on military installations, use on military installations, and use by those over 21). Evidence of the death anddamage is often seen at the main gate to a military installation – the wrecked car or the “ _X_ DUI’s this month” board.

When Pfc. Matthew Clark was placed on restriction last month, he thought he’d been busted for smoking in the barracks.

Now he faces court-martial and administrative separation from the Marine Corps after being accused of smoking a legal substance many of his friends had never even heard about. Clark and a friend, Pfc. Dijon Lawless, both students at Camp Johnson’s Marine Corps Combat Service Support School, learned from another Marine private about “spice,” a legal blend of herbs that produces cannabinoid effects including increased relaxation, loss of coordination and mild hallucinations when smoked.

ENC Today reports. Spice is a street name for Salvia. There are other similar herbs out there being used.