Instructions Category Archives — Page 2 of 3 — Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog Published by International Military Lawyer

Circumstantial evidence

April 5, 2013 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

I sometimes cringe when the circumstantial evidence instruction is given about waking up and the grass is wet. In some neighborhoods, all that means is that people’s lawn sprinklers have been on during the night or early morning, not that it rained in the night. Sometimes I make that point to be careful about the concept. But, here is a much more scholarly and pithy discussion of circumstantial evidence and instructions.

Eugenee M. Heeter, Chance of Rain: Rethinking Circumstantial Evidence Jury Instructions, 64 HASTINGS L. J. 527 (2013).

Instructions-withdrawal from a conspiracy

March 2, 2013 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Federal Evidence Review alerts us that:

The Seventh Circuit is the first circuit to publish revised jury instructions based on the recent ruling Supreme Court ruling clarifying the burden to withdraw from a conspiracy in Smith v. United States, 568 U.S. _, 133 S.Ct. 714 (Jan. 9, 2013), which abrogated prior Seventh Circuit cases on the issue

On January 9, 2013, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision clarifying the burden of proof to establish withdrawal from a conspiracy. In a decision authored by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Court held that the defendant holds the burden to prove withdrawal and the government does not bear any burden to disprove withdrawal. See Smith v. United States, 568 U.S. _, 133 S.Ct. 714 (Jan. 9, 2013). The ruling resolved a split on the issue among the circuits.

“Jury” instructions

December 11, 2012 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

From time to time I find a need to ask for a special instruction or a rewording of a BB instruction. Here is a favorite, in BAH/TAD/TDY fraud cases:

I have asked for (but not gotten) a “Consciousness of Innocence,” instruction in cases where there is evidence to support it (cooperating with NCIS, giving a full statement, consenting to searches, other assistance. A one point I was also of the opinion that a willingness to take a polygraph examination was also indicative.). I craft it based on the prosecution friendly consciousness of guilt instruction. There appears to be acceptance in some courts of this instruction.

Federal Evidence Review continues the practice of checking it twice for federal jury instructions among the circuits. Personally I have found the Eleventh’s instruction for child por******phy cases to be an excellent resource.

Instructions

September 20, 2012 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

“With respect to deviations from the model instructions in the Benchbook, we note that the military judge was not required to follow literally the non-binding examples therein. SeeUnited States v. Bigelow, 57 M.J. 64, 67 (C.A.A.F. 2002).”

United States v. Simpson, 58 M.J. 368, 378 (C.A.A.F. 2003).

Federal Model Jury instruction on social media

August 26, 2012 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Federalevidence.com has this piece on about juries and social media, and a discussion of the model jury instruction.

They also link to an interesting 22 November 2011 Federal Judicial Center report .

The use of social media by jurors during trials and deliberations is not a common occurrence. Of the 508 judges who responded to the survey, only 30 judges (6%) reported any detected instances of jurors using social media during trial and deliberation[.]

It was him, I’m sure

July 20, 2012 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Maybe not. There is quite a bit of research and anecdotal evidence to show that eyewitness testimony can be unreliable. Now New Jersey is in the frontline of making sure a jury is aware of the potential problems with eyewitness testimony. To quote the ABA Journal.

New jury instructions in New Jersey will warn that human memory is not foolproof and eyewitness testimony must be carefully scrutinized.

Set to take effect on Sept. 4, the new instructions follow a landmark ruling last year by the New Jersey Supreme Court that makes it easier for defendants to challenge the reliability of eyewitness identifications, the New York Times reports. The decision also required juries to be instructed on the variables that could lead to mistaken identifications.

Instructions

October 2, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

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 military judges erred in failing to instruct the members as to mistake of fact as to consent.

New ACCA unpublished opinion

October 1, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

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 mutual combat to exercise self-defense when the force used against him escalated. Today we find that any error by the military judge was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and affirm the findings and sentence.

NMCCA sets aside a Article 120 case for instructional error

August 19, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

In the United States v. Jones the facts cited by the court show a consent defense. However the defense counsel did not request an instruction on the affirmative defense and the military judge did not give one. There being no evidence of an affirmative waiver the findings and sentence were set aside.

A military judge has a sua sponte duty to instruct the members on an affirmative defense if it is reasonably raised by the evidence. United States v. McDonald, 57 M.J. 18, 20
(C.A.A.F. 2002). Failure by the defense counsel to request the instruction does not waive the error. United States v. Brown, 43 M.J. 187, 189 (C.A.A.F. 1995)(citing United States v. Taylor, 26 M.J. 127, 129 (C.M.A. 1988). Failure by the military judge to instruct on an affirmative defense presents a constitutional error which must be tested for prejudice. For such an error to be deemed harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the Government must prove that the members would have reached the same verdict absent the error. Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 19 (1999).

We agree with the appellant that the affirmative defense of consent was reasonably raised by the appellant’s sworn testimony. As noted above, the appellant posited a scenario in which the purported victim, Cpl B, was an unambiguously willing participant in the sexual contact alleged, ostensibly even the instigator and aggressor.

Instructions

December 25, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Jury instructions are too often so poorly written that even the most intelligent juror cannot understand them. That’s a serious problem. So how can we make jury instructions more understandable? Prof. Peter Tiersma offers many concrete suggestions in this article, available for free download on SSRN. If you’re a trial judge or trial lawyer, you need to read it.

From the (new) legal writer blog. Instructions given in a court-martial prosecution under the UCMJ can at times be confusing. Certainly the current practice in a court-martial of reading the instructions and then giving a written copy does help somewhat to alleviate potential issues from reading only.