Up Periscope Category Archives — Page 74 of 108 — Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog Published by International Military Lawyer

Prosecutorial misconduct

September 24, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Here’s a link to the USA Today piece.

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 prison, set guilty people free and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees and sanctions.

Judges have warned for decades that misconduct by prosecutors threatens the Constitution’s promise of a fair trial. Congress in 1997 enacted a law aimed at ending such abuses

Quintanilla sitrep

September 21, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The LA Times is reporting that Quintanilla was sentenced to life today.

Well that’s a relief

September 20, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

I posted several pieces about the Navy and relief’s for cause in the last few weeks – here.

Well here at two more: another Norfolk CO, and another Bangor bubblehead.

Go Mori

September 18, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Marine Corps Times reports:

A Marine Corps attorney says his vigorous defense of a terrorism suspect held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp delayed his promotion by three years. Now he is taking the Navy to court alleging that he was punished for doing his job.

Go Dan!

Harassing the defense?

September 18, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

We regularly get reports from clients and their families about being harassed by NCIS, CID, CGIS, OSI. In general what the client is reacting to is the law enforcement fishing expedition. During a law enforcement fishing expedition. This law enforcement fishing expedition is where they go around to friends and neighbors telling them what a bad person the client is and seeking more bad information. So what happens when the defense starts to get effective in their own investigation?

Here is a North County Times report:

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, its agents, Camp Pendleton military police and a San Diego Marine staff judge advocate on behalf of a North County woman who alleges they violated her constitutional rights with intimidation and harassment.

CrimProfBlog post

September 17, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Mary D. Fan (University of Washington – School of Law) has posted The Police Gamesmanship Dilemma in Criminal Procedure (UC Davis Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Police gaming of the rules is a perennial challenge for constitutional criminal procedure, leading to twists and hazard zones in the law such as the recent decision in Arizona v. Gant and feared fallout from Maryland v. Shatzer. Police gamesmanship in the “competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime” involves rule-pushing and dodging tactics of dubious propriety that exploit blind spots, blurry regions or gaps in rules and remedies. Currently, courts generally avoid peering into the Pandora’s Box of police tactics unless the circumvention of a protection becomes too obvious to ignore and requires a stop-gap rule-patch that further complicates the maze of constitutional criminal procedure. This approach leaves murky the line between fair and foul play and gives police perverse incentive to game covertly. A new approach is needed, founded on a better understanding of police gaming of the rules. This article takes up the task.

Up periscope

September 15, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

This is the 13th day that APF (safeguardourconstitution), LTC Lakin’s support site, has failed to post the military judge’s findings and conclusions, and advertises as “Breaking News,” “Judge to Rules (sic) . . ..”

SLDN reports:

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a national, legal services and policy organization dedicated to ending "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" (DADT), released a set of formal recommendations today to the Comprehensive Review Working Group, established to author a report on "how" to implement repeal, not "if" repeal should happen.

ACCA on post-trial honorable discharges

September 15, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Here is a link to United States v. Brasington., decided 13 September 2010. It is not unusual for an appellant to be issued a DD214, Honorable Discharge, sometime after a court-martial at which the appellant was adjudged a punitive discharge.

In this case, we are asked, following remand, whether an honorable discharge, effective after this court’s affirming a sentence that included a bad-conduct discharge, has the effect of remitting that discharge. We hold appellant’s administrative discharge was voidable, properly voided, and did not remit appellant’s premature discharge.

This was a rather odd situation because the appellant was an active duty Soldier and it was the Reserve command giving him the discharge. ACCA found that the Commander, HRC-StLouis had no authority to discharge appellant.

Shipboard privacy a la computers

September 13, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Thanks the CAAFLog here is a link to the new Naval Law Review and an article about .

I had just such a case last week.

Here is a link to the JER provisions that are applicable.

Up periscope

September 13, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a book review of Richard North Patterson’s new book which is about a court-martial. Yes, it’s about a Army officer who returns from Iraq, kills his former commander, and

As the case unfolds, Mr. Patterson gives the reader a tutorial in military justice as well as the complexities of PTSD. He also makes clear his stand against the war through testimonies from personnel involved with McCarran in Iraq.

The tension rises throughout the court-martial: Will the judge allow PTSD as a defense? Will the jury believe how the war changed not just McCarran, but the man he killed?