Articles Posted in UCMJ

The prosecution of SPC Ivette Davila, at Fort Lewis, will generate some interest; hers will be the first death penalty prosecution of a woman under the UCMJ. Checking – has a woman ever been executed as a result of a court-martial in the United States? The answer is no under the UCMJ. The two most…

Seattle Times reports. A woman accused of killing two fellow soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and kidnapping their baby in 2008 will face a general court-martial after military authorities determined last week there was enough evidence to move forward with the case. The News Tribune reports this is a death penalty referral (seems like a…

FourthAmendment blog reports a new case: Police reports were “deceptive and deficient,” but the court believes officer without a credibility determination: Ties go to the runner, or the government. The court finds the officer deceptive and believes him anyway because of a presumption police officers tell the truth [even when their reports are “deceptive and…

A case pending at the U.S. Supreme Court was recently settled out of court, and the case withdrawn from consideration. It appears that there has been a settlement of $12M, for prosecutorial misconduct. “This means prosecutors who step outside their traditional role and who act as investigators (in criminal cases) can still be subject to…

Stars & Stripes reports. The Army recently asked 45 of its soldiers in the highest enlisted rank to retire for substandard performance, past criminal convictions, problems with alcohol, fraternization or sexual harassment in their recent pasts. Of the 45 sergeants major whose records were flagged under the newly reinstituted Qualitative Management Program, 28 complied, putting…

Here’s the scenario: Client is convicted at court-martial. Sentencing is to take place the next day, or a Monday after a Friday conviction. Based on the charges and the evidence there’s a reasonable likelihood the client will get some confinement. The command wants to put the client in pretrial confinement pending sentencing. Can they? 1.…

There are a number of ways denial of counsel of choice can come up, most frequently related to the availability of civilian counsel. Here’s an interesting one. United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140 (2006). The opinion is written by Justice Scalia. Here are the important part of the opinion: In sum, the right at…

United States v. Cowgill. WHETHER THE MILITARY JUDGE ABUSED HER DISCRETION IN DENYING THE DEFENSE MOTION TO SUPPRESS ALL EVIDENCE FROM APPELLANT’S HOME. The two underlying point were: potential erroneous information given for a search warrant (statements were factually incorrect, but believed to be true by the detective at the time), and if there was…

United States v. Sezginalp: There is an interesting appellate procedural history. The court intially denied various efforts to have a post-trial R.C.M. 706 evaluation. But, the court did sua sponte reconsider the denial and did order a new R.C.M. 706 examination. On 6 January 2010, the ordered R.C.M. 706 evaluation report was released. The evaluation…

WRAL.com reports that members selection has begun in the Hennis court-martial. x reports that the military judge has declined to delay trial pending the outcome of Hennis’s District Court jurisdictional case. Navy Times reports: The skipper of Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., was temporarily relieved of command Friday for “inappropriate conduct,” Navy officials said. Capt.…