Articles Posted in UCMJ

The Seattle Times reports the pending court-martial case: Spc. Jeremy Morlock, a 22-year-old Army soldier from Wasilla, Alaska, will face charges in connection with the murders of three Afghan civilians and other crimes at a hearing scheduled Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. And here’s a Foreign Policy note.

The Chronicle reports: Barbara (Obremski) Allen, widow of Chester native First Lt. Louis Allen, will host a book-signing of her new release “Front Toward Enemy” On Saturday, Oct. 23 from 3-6 p.m., at John S. Burke Catholic High School in Goshen. When Lt. Allen was murdered in Iraq in 2005 he left behind Barbara and…

Couple of new NMCCA decisions on some court-martial appeals. United States v. Soucie. In this case NMCCA decides that the military judge failed to adequately inquire into a duress defense on providency. The accused raised six errors and the NMCCA specified an additional error. The government agreed that a charge under Article 123a should be…

Here is Professor Friedman’s post about Briscoe. The Virginia Supreme Court today issued its decision in Briscoe on remand from the United States Supreme Court. . The court held that the former Virginia statutory scheme (under which the defendant had to call a lab analyst as his witness if he wanted to examine the analyst)…

This is the 13th day that APF (safeguardourconstitution), LTC Lakin’s support site, has failed to post the military judge’s findings and conclusions, and advertises as “Breaking News,” “Judge to Rules (sic) . . ..” This is the 13th day that LTC Lakin and his team have failed to file a petition for a writ of…

WFAA.com reports that: Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan’s attorney tells News 8 he will ask a military judge Thursday morning to close the upcoming Article 32 Hearing for his client to the public and press. “I think it’s necessary to ensure he can eventually get a fair trial at Fort Hood,” (Ret.) Col.…

The Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals has issued an opinion in United States v. Hull. The issues on appeal are: whether the staff judge advocate (SJA) erred by advising the convening authority (CA), pursuant to Rule for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) 1106, that no new trial was warranted and whether the CA erred by failing to…

Here is a link to United States v. Brasington., decided 13 September 2010. It is not unusual for an appellant to be issued a DD214, Honorable Discharge, sometime after a court-martial at which the appellant was adjudged a punitive discharge. In this case, we are asked, following remand, whether an honorable discharge, effective after this…

Here is a training video and handouts from NACDL. This may be helpful with your junior enlisted court-martial clients who are foreign nationals. In Padilla v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court held that defense lawyers must affirmatively and correctly advise their clients about the immigration consequences of entering a plea and failure to do so constitutes…

New York Times has this good short piece about false confessions. New research shows how people who were apparently uninvolved in a crime could provide such a detailed account of what occurred, allowing prosecutors to claim that only the defendant could have committed the crime. An article by Professor Garrett draws on trial transcripts, recorded…