Articles Posted in UCMJ

State Department investigators say Chief Engineman (SW) Arturo Puente at Jacksonville’s Mayport Naval Station has used a false name for the last 22 years while working at U.S. embassies in Rome and Panama, according to the Florida Times-Union newspaper. Navy Times reports. No indications of a court-martial or any UCMJ violations.

Airman 1st Class Corey Hernandez pulled the trigger. Nothing was supposed to happen, except the metallic click of the hammer striking the firing pin. Instead, the pistol fired. Until Dec. 10, when the 23-year-old Garcia died, the Air Force had not had any reported incidents of airmen playing Trust. Air Force Times reports Troops have…

Jury instructions are too often so poorly written that even the most intelligent juror cannot understand them. That’s a serious problem. So how can we make jury instructions more understandable? Prof. Peter Tiersma offers many concrete suggestions in this article, available for free download on SSRN. If you’re a trial judge or trial lawyer, you…

A counterterror airstrike in Yemen that may have targeted Anwar al-Awlaki, the extremist cleric linked to Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, could raise new questions about whether Hasan’s rampage in Killeen, Texas, on Nov. 5 was the act of a lone wolf or part of a conspiracy. Reports the Christian Science Monitor.

With a seasonal title, Prof. Colin Miller reminds us of a particular caution when seeking to admit statements of a co-conspirator – the statements have to be made before the crime is committed. There should be the same impact in a court-martial prosecution under the UCMJ. Prof. Colin Miller, Later On, We’ll Conspire: Court Of…

I have done several posts on this blog (here, here, here, here, and here) about the inaccuracy of regular and cross-racial eyewitness identifications and whether expert testimony about this inaccuracy should be allowed. My general sense is that most courts allow such expert testimony although a decent number of courts, such as the Eleventh Circuit…

United States v. Matthews is an interesting new Army decision. In this case the appellate courts ordered a DuBay hearing. During that hearing the prior military judge testified as to his rationale for various decisions at trial. Using that testimony, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals applied the harmless beyond reasonable doubt standard to findings…

Here I’m talking about limiting instructions at court-martial, not alleged curative instructions. A limiting instruction is appropriate where evidence is admissible for one or more purposes, but is also inadmissible for one or more purposes. Here is a reminder from federalevidence blog of how that works. In multi-defendant cocaine conspiracy trial, FRE 105 was satisfied…

Article 13, UCMJ, prohibits pretrial punishment. In United States v. Turner, NMCCA 200401570 (N-M.C. Ct. Crim. App. 22 December 2009), the court found pretrial punishment and set-aside the BCD. This may be somewhat pyrrhic because the sentence was adjudged in 2001. That means the appellant has been on unpaid appellate leave since 2001. In his…

The White House will not weigh in on the case of the three Navy SEALs facing court martial for allegedly mistreating an Iraqi terror suspect believed to have been behind the slaying of four Americans in 2004. CNSNews.com reports. We already have too much litigation by media, and by Congress in courts-martials and other UCMJ…