Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

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

New Army Lawyer

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

The August Army Lawyer is online. My initial look found this one article of potential interest to MJWonks.

Warrior King: The Triumph and Betrayal of an American Commander in Iraq, by LTC Nathan Sassaman.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Sassaman believes in winning.3 He won as West Point’s quarterback, and he preached the virtue of rising after a fall as an Army officer. In Warrior King, Sassaman attempts to win back his public image after involvement in a notorious incident of detainee abuse early in the Iraq War.

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.

A Randolph nuance

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

Courtesy of FourthAmendment.com here is a good case to know about.

Defendant and his wife got into a domestic dispute, and she called the police to tell them about his illegal firearms. They came to the scene and she consented to the search. He was there and vociferously objected. The police searched anyway. The search violated Randolph. Moreover, the defendant’s objections put the police on notice that she probably did not have apparent authority to consent. United States v. Tatman, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19220, 2010 FED App. 0604N (6th Cir. September 13, 2010) (unpublished).

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!

Military justice book

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

The Chronicle reports:

Barbara (Obremski) Allen, widow of Chester native First Lt. Louis Allen, will host a book-signing of her new release “Front Toward Enemy” On Saturday, Oct. 23 from 3-6 p.m., at John S. Burke Catholic High School in Goshen.

When Lt. Allen was murdered in Iraq in 2005 he left behind Barbara and their four sons ages 20 months to 6 years. While the Sergeant accused of his murder signed a confession, it was rejected and he eventually walked out of the Army and his court martial a free man. This is the impossible story.

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.

Relief for cause

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

There has been some reporting that the number of Detached for Cause (DFC, Relief for Cause) in the Navy are up this year over past years. Here are some more. Actually I almost missed one. I had this ready to post last night and didn’t so today I was able to read:

A Navy Times report entitled “Navy sacks three leaders in one day” (fortunately for them no court-martial that we know of):

In the span of 24 hours, the Navy has fired a commanding officer, executive officer and a command master chief.

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.