For all of the criticisms of military justice and the UCMJ, you don’t have this at court-martial as tipped by Sentencing Law & Policy blog. Cargill, a federal public defender, was perturbed by a rarely discussed U.S. court rule that critics say conflicts with the presumption of judicial openness. In…
Articles Posted in sixth amendment
In the Supremes
SCOTUSBlog notes two new petitions with potential impact on a court-martial practice under the UCMJ. Title: NIBCO, Inc. v. Rivera Docket: 10-383 Issue(s): (1) Whether a court of appeals must conduct a comparative juror analysis when reviewing a claim under Batson v. Kentucky, even though the comparative analysis was neither…
Crawford, Melendez-Diaz, Briscoe, and Blazier stew
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…
ACCA on IAC
In United States v. Darling, ACCA affirmed because appellant could not establish the prejudice prong of an IAC “claim.” This is worth reading for those cases where the accused is found not guilty after a contested case, but during sentencing there is a concession that the accused was actually guilty. …
Speedy trial
Allen v. United States Air Force, No. 08-3450 (8th Cir. 7 May 2010). Joseph Allen served in the United States Air Force (Air Force) for more than twenty years, from January 14, 1985, until September 30, 2006, when he voluntarily retired and received an Honorable Discharge. During his service, on…
Crawford, Melendez-Diaz, Briscoe – and now Pendergrass v. Indiana
Here is a link to the full cert petition in Pendergrass v. Indiana. The question presented is: Whether the Confrontation Clause permits the prosecution to introduce testimonial statements of a nontestifying forensic analyst through the in-court testimony of a supervisor or other person who did not perform or observe the…