Up periscope

The Seattle Times reports (on a Ramrod Five/Stryker Brigade case):

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.