John Wesley Hall’s website is an excellent resource for issues involving the Fourth Amendment–FourthAmendment.com. In pointing to a search warrant case Mr. Hall quotes from the opinion. We remind McCollum’s counsel that “the statement of facts in an appellate brief should be a concise narrative of the facts stated in…
Packingham v. North Carolina is the case of Lester Packingham, a North Carolina man who became a registered sex offender after he was convicted, at the age of 21, of taking indecent liberties with a minor. Six years after Packingham’s conviction, North Carolina enacted a law that made it a…
SCOTUSBlog has an interesting post about the court’s relist practice. Some of us discussed the relist option when the court was considering the petition in United States v. Sullivan, 74 M.J. 448 (C.A.A.F. 2015) cert. denied. When last we wrote about the statistics of relists a little over a year…
The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has decided United States v. Hennis, the military’s latest death penalty appeal. The opinion is 106 pages long, so it will take a little time read. But what struck me immediately were the statistics. The case was heard en banc. However, of 12 judges…
In United States v. Lopez, Army Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, but there is no opinion on the Army court website and I don’t see it in Lexis. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has specified an issue for review in this case as follows: No. 16-0487/AR. U.S.…
This article showed that the vast majority of court-martial sentences are affirmed by AFCCA. On the rare occasion when sentence relief was granted, it was usually not based on factual sufficiency or sentence appropriateness. While there has been some fluctuation in how often AFCCA grants sentence relief, it is minimal…
The NMCCA has issued two significant opinions this week, one of which is worth the read while the United States prosecution of Bowe Bergdahl continues. United States v. Solis, __ M.J. ___ (N-M Ct. Crim. App. 2016). The case presents discussion of continuing issues relating to the nature of the…
Is it an indecent exposure offense under UCMJ art. 120, to show someone a digital picture of your own genitals? In a published opinion in United States v. Williams, __ M.J. __, No. 20140401 (A. Ct. Crim. App. Mar. 30, 3016), the Army Court of Criminal Appeals split 2-1 in deciding…
I came across a couple of Air Force opinions and have posted about habeas corpus and coram nobis. https://www.court-martial.com/habeas-coram.html
I have commented on this before–post-CAAF habeas corpus, but a new case from the 9th is time for a reminder. Narula v. Yakubisin (CO, NAVCONBRING Miramar), No. 15-55658 (9th Cir. 17 May 2016). It is common for the military appellant to think about federal court once their military appeal is…