Up Periscope Category Archives — Page 67 of 108 — Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog Published by International Military Lawyer

MAJ Hasan update

January 17, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

John Galligan bemoans the lack of funding to develop mitigation evidence.

The Hasan Defense Request for Additional Mitigation Funding, dated 7 January 2011, submitted to the Special Court-Martial Convening Authority, still has not been acted upon. By comparison, I am not aware of any funding request by US Army prosecutors that has not been timely and favorably approved . . . . . Why am I not surprised?

No John, why are we not surprised? In that respect United States v. Hasan is no different than other cases.

Sociability in DOD

January 17, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Federal Computer Week reports:

The Defense Department last year laid out the rules for the military’s use of social media with a set of guidelines that are set to expire on March 1.

Now what? That’s the question that people are asking.

Behenna

January 16, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Courtesy of a poster at CAAFLog here is a link to the motion for a new trial and the affidavit given by Dr. Macdonell.

Senior officer misconduct

January 16, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

A general lost his joint command because he inappropriately touched female subordinates and made off-colored remarks in private and public meetings, according to the Pentagon’s top investigator. . . . Chambers has declined requests for comment twice, immediately after his dismissal and after Air Force Times obtained the inspector general’s findings Dec. 27 through a Freedom of Information Act request. He is now serving as a special assistant to the commander of the Air Force District of Washington, D.C., while Air Force Secretary Michael Donley reviews his case.

Up periscope

January 16, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Navy Times reports the Honors “debate.”

In one view, echoed online by thousands of angry supporters, the risqué aspect of Capt. Owen Honors’ videos simply reflected shipboard life and were funny escapes from the often-tedious routine of deployment; offended crew members of the carrier Enterprise could simply look away. Honors was an excellent leader, they say, and became the victim of political correctness gone amok.

Others, including several former commanding officers who spoke with Navy Times, largely disagree. Honors should have realized how far he’d climbed out on a limb, regardless of whether those videos would be viewed outside the ship.

False confessions anyone

January 16, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The aim of this study was to model various social and cognitive processes believed to be associated with true and false confessions by exploring the link between investigative biases [1] and what occurs in the interrogation room. Using the Russano et al. (Psychol Sci 16:481–486, 2005) paradigm, this study explored how perceptions of guilt influenced the frequency and type of interrogation tactics used, suspect’s perceptions of the interrogation process, the likelihood of confession, and investigator’s resulting perceptions of culpability. Results suggested that investigator bias led to the increased use of minimization tactics and thereby increased the likelihood of false confessions by innocent participants. In contrast, the manipulation of investigator bias had no direct or indirect influence on guilty participants. These findings confirm the important role of investigator bias and improve our understanding of the decision-making process associated with true and false confessions.

Fadia M. Narchet, Christian A. Meissner and Melissa B. Russano, Modeling the Influence of Investigator Bias on the Elicitation of True and False Confessions, J. Law & Human Behavior (Dec. 2010).

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Dockets

January 14, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The Navy-Marine Corps Trial Judiciary page links to the docket for WESTPAC (which includes Okinawa and Yoko). However, to get the Navy docket at Pearl Harbor you will find it at the Brig website. Interestingly the Navy appears to have tried four cases since 29 November, and one of those appears to have been a two-day Article 86 summary court-martial, and one was a Coastie.

800-pound gorilla–Not!

January 14, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

In a number of cases Judge Wiss made the statement about the CCA’s that

"[T]here are some places where even ‘the proverbial 800-pound gorilla’ is not free to roam."

See e.g., United States v. Parker, 36 M.J. 269, 273 (C.M.A. 1993)(citing United States v. Bethea, 22 U.S.C.M.A. 223, 46 C.M.R. 223 (1973)) (Wiss, J. concurring).

Up periscope

January 13, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Coastline Courier reports:

The start date in a Fort Stewart soldier’s death penalty case has been delayed, to give the defense time to have their experts examine additional evidence and to accommodate witnesses coming to the United States from Iraq.

Army Times reports a change in status:

Enterprise

January 13, 2011 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Military.com reports:

The Navy says a second officer has been transferred from his job pending investigation into the showing of lewd videos on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

Rear Adm. Dennis Moynihan, a Navy spokesman, said Thursday that Rear Adm. Lawrence Rice has been transferred out of his job at Joint Forces Command. His retirement planned for Feb. 1 is being delayed.