Articles Posted in UCMJ

ACCA has issued an opinion in United States v. Trigueros, 68 M.J. ___ (A. Ct. Crim. App. 2010). [Post updated to address a CAAFLog point, to add some links, and try to fix some formatting.] This case involves the common problem of discovery of a victims mental health records. There are two troubling aspects to…

Two items came across my screen at about the same time. The FayObserver reports that: The judge in the court-martial of Army Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis rejected defense calls for a mistrial this morning. Defense lawyers claimed that the judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, acted with partiality – or the appearance of partiality – in front…

Human Events reports that: One of three Navy SEALs facing a court martial announced at a rally Saturday that he has passed a polygraph test, casting doubt on the Pentagon’s case against him. Rep. John Shadegg (R.-Ariz.) who attended and spoke at the rally, told HUMAN EVENTS that “while the lie detector test results won’t…

Not all states allow a prior court-martial conviction into evidence. But as the decision in Oliver v. Commonwealth, 60 S.E. 2d 567 (2005), shows, the Commonwealth of Virginia considers a prior special court-martial conviction admissible in sentencing. In principle, we accept that certain “wholly unconstitutional” convictions can be collaterally attacked and disqualified for consideration during…

Guantanamo Bay Detainees in the Courts, an eBook by Leagle.com. Legal experts will analyze the Guantanamo Bay detainee cases for decades to come, but presented here are the court opinions themselves, unedited and in their entirety, so that readers can review a court’s reasoning firsthand, unfiltered and without bias. The opinions are in answer to…

Carissa Byrne Hessick, Disentangling CP from Child Sex Abuse, 88 Washington L. Rev. __ (2010). Recent years have seen a significant increase in the criminal penalties associated with possession of child pornography. The new severity appears to be premised on arguments that blur the distinction between those who possess images of child pornography and those…

Here are the military justice related articles in the new Army Lawyer. Searching for Reasonableness—The Supreme Court Revisits the Fourth Amendment “I’ve Got to Admit It’s Getting Better”*: New Developments in Post-Trial The Impact of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts on Admissibility of Forensic Test Results at Courts-Martial Armed for the Attack: Recent Developments in Impeachment Evidence…

Kate Wiltrout of Virginia Pilot reports that: Prosecutors handling the courts-martial of two local Navy SEALs charged with not stopping a teammate’s alleged assault on an Iraqi detainee faced another setback Friday. Cmdr. Tierney Carlos agreed to exclude a statement made by one of the SEALs to the special agent investigating the allegations in September…

Sentencing Law & Policy reports: This remarkable local story out of Montana, which is headlined “Man blames PTSD for child pornography downloads,” reports on another notable sentence break given to a notable child porn offense. Here are the details, which spotlight many of the hottest issues in current federal sentencing debates: An Iraq war veteran…

I posted the other day about an 11th Circuit decision on extra-territoriality of 18 U. S. Code 2251A. Here is an article, courtesy of CrimProfBlog that may be of some interest on that subject. Jeffrey A. Meyer (Quinnipiac University – School of Law) has posted Dual Illegality and Geoambiguous Law: A New Rule for Extraterritorial…