Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

I note here the results in two cases involving sexual assault.

The New York Times reports: President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted the administration, and made WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous.…

A Facebook post about military sexual assault training: “There’s no need to try to understand why sexual assaults are up 550% in the Military. All women have no ability to think after one drink and are not responsible for their actions but a Male soldier is responsible for his actions…

The most potentially relevant is McWilliams v. Dunn, No. 16-5294, involves a question regarding the degree of independence needed for appointed mental health experts under Ake v. Oklahoma. Then there are: Weaver v. Massachusetts, No. 16-240:  The defendant claims his lawyer was ineffective for failing to object to a closure of…

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has decided United States v. Wilson, __ M.J. __, No. 16-0267/AR, for the appellant.  The issue was: Whether the military judge erred in denying the defense motion for appropriate relief under Rule for Court-Martial 917 where the military judge improperly applied Article…

Courtesy of the Booneville Democrat we now know that Several bills . . . are among a number of bill filings this week at the State Capitol in preparation for the 91st General Assembly regular session. They include: House Bill 1059, by Rep. House, would criminalize the violation of a…

CBS news has picked up this: A former Fort Bragg soldier who killed four women and raped others more than 25 years ago is again headed for execution. The Fayetteville Observer reports Ronald Gray last week lost a battle to keep in place a federal court’s order issued eight years…

“We thus readily conclude that ex parte communications between a military judge and an SVC are generally proscribed.” Yes, inexplicably, it was necessary for the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals (AFCCA) to decide such an issue, as part of deciding what impact, if any, SVC’s ex parte communications had…

On this date in 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason by a French court-martial. J’accuse. “[A] phrase made famous by Emile Zola in a public letter attacking the irregularities of the Dreyfus trial (published Jan. 13, 1898).” The accusation was enough. Although I think it should also be…

We have all been there. The unsophisticated suspect consents to the taking a search of their cell phone or computers. Or, the MCIO get a search authorization. Then investigators basically go on a fishing expedition for evidence of the current allegations, and anything else they can find–justifying anything else found on…