Despite the political rhetoric LTC Lakin’s case has given us a number of teaching moments or opportunity to refresh on some basic practice principles. 1. Can LTC Lakin change lawyers at this stage. The answer in this case is probably yes. Although technically Mr. Jensen should submit a motion to…
CNN has this report on the Morlock Article 32, UCMJ, hearing. A U.S. soldier accused of killing civilians in Afghanistan should face a court-martial on murder and other charges, an Army officer has recommended. The recommendation, included in a document obtained by CNN, comes after prosecutors laid out their evidence…
Army Times reports: A military officer has ordered a mental evaluation for the suspect in the November Fort Hood shootings before a key hearing next week. Earlier this year, Army officials appointed a three-member board of military mental health professionals to determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan is competent to stand…
The APF website is back up! The American Patriot Foundation is pleased to announce that LTC Lakin has repositioned his forces, has retained new legal counsel, and is extremely grateful that the Foundation will be dedicating the critical next few weeks before his planned court-martial on November 3-5, to focusing…
United States v. Sagona, sentenced at court-martial on 8 May 2008, appeal decided 30 September 2010. The issue was IAC of trial defense counsel who allegedly failed to investigate and advise on a potential defense of immunity. R.C.M. 704 covers the issues of immunity, tempered by case law. Basically only…
I posted yesterday on a new Army case dealing with instructions on an affirmative defense in a court-martial under the UCMJ. Today I’m posting on United States v. Ramon, an unpublished opinion from the NMCCA dated 28 September 2010. In his sole assignment of error, the appellant alleges that the…
On 23 September 2010 USA Today published a front page piece about federal prosecutors. Federal prosecutors are supposed to seek justice, not merely score convictions. But a USA TODAY investigation found that prosecutors repeatedly have violated that duty in courtrooms across the nation. The abuses have put innocent people in…
United States v. Stanley. The appellant raised eight errors through counsel and an additional six in accordance with United States v. Grostefon. One assignment of error warrants discussion, but no relief. Specifically, appellant alleges that the military judge erred by failing to properly instruct the panel regarding appellant’s right during…
Here is an observation by federalevidence.com: One issue raised by the new case concerns whether a majority of the Court still supports the Confrontation Clause analysis established under Crawford v. Washington in 2004, and Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts in 2009. Two Justices who voted in the majority (John Paul Stevens and…
Humor in military lawyering is good. Humor is good. Standby for a comment from DMLHS tonight. In thinking about why the case would be delayed to 3 November 2010 there were all kinds of ideas floating around, some ideas being of a conspiratorial nature. I had missed the piece noted…