Pilot Online reports that:
For years, the top officer in the Virginia National Guard has had a paid position with a business run by one of his subordinate officers.
Newman promoted Bonanni to the assistant adjutant general’s post in 2008 while collecting a paycheck from his company.
There’s been lots of litigation about SORNA. But now, courtesy of Sentencing Law & Policy we learn that DOJ has some recommendations for amending SORNA.
You will be interested to know that this morning the U.S. Department of Justice issued proposed supplemental guidelines modifying several requirements for compliance with SORNA. Many address concerns raised by the states and other stakeholders. They do the following:
- Gives jurisdictions discretion to exempt juvenile offenders from public website posting
- Provides information concerning the review process for determining that jurisdictions have substantially implemented
- Gives jurisdictions discretion to modify the retroactive registration requirement to apply to new felony convictions only
- Provides mechanisms for newly recognized tribes to elect whether to become SORNA registration jurisdictions and to implement SORNA
- Expands required registration information to include the forms signed by sex offenders acknowledging that they were advised of their registration obligations
- Requires jurisdictions to exempt sex offenders’ e-mail addresses and other Internet identifiers from public website posting
- Requires jurisdictions to have sex offenders report international travel 21 days in advance
- Clarifies mechanism for interjurisdictional information sharing and tracking.
(update) Here is a link to the 14 May 2010 entry in the Federal Register.
safeguardourconstitution reports that: “Obama Administration unleashes Army lawyers instead of releasing birth certificate.” This is shameful hyperbole and utterly incorrect.
LTC Lakin is alleged to have committed offenses in violation of the UCMJ. The conduct alleged cuts to the very heart of military requirements of obedience to orders, fidelity to the oath of office, and the need for seniors to set the example. I’m reliably informed that in addition to formal counselings every effort was made pre-preferral to convince LTC Lakin to obey his orders. In the face of such contumacious behavior the Army had no choice but to prefer charges. Enlisted personnel are regularly disciplined, court-martialed, and jailed for the same or similar conduct and who have better reasons for their AWOL. Such a stunning lack of officership cannot pass unnoticed or undisciplined. Neither President Obama nor his administration has any role in this case at all. Should the administration try to get involved they should be told – politely – to butt out.
Army Times reports that:
An Army captain from Colorado charged with killing two Iraqi civilians has been convicted of lesser charges in Iraq.
Military officials say Capt. Carl Bjork was found guilty of reckless endangerment and negligent homicide in a general court-martial on Tuesday. He was reprimanded and will lose a third of his salary for one year.
Safeguardourconstitution reports that the Article 32, UCMJ, hearing is scheduled for 11 June 2010.
The report links to a letter to MAJ Kemkes (a great TDS lawyer from Fort Myer) granting a delay of the hearing from 6 May to 11 June.
LTC Driscoll, a lawyer, is the IO. The use of non-lawyers as IO is pretty standard within the Army. Thanx CAAFLog for the update.
KVUE.com reports that:
The attorney representing the accused gunman in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings says the Army is holding back important evidence in the upcoming Article 32 hearing.
Attorney John Galligan says he needs court documents, including Major Nidal Hasan’s FBI files, to gain more insight into his mental state in the months leading up to the shooting.
There has been quite a bit of discussion recently of waiving appellate review as part of a pretrial agreement.
Here is a timely article from the ABA about this important topic (thanks to Sentencing Law & Policy for the link).
Ellis & Bussert, Stemming the Tide of Postconviction Waivers, 25 (1) Crim. Justice, Spring 2010, ABA.
MG John L. Fugh, a former Army TJAG has died. Here is a link to the Washington Post obituary.
Maj. Gen. John L. Fugh, who served as the Army’s top uniformed lawyer in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War and later had a successful career in the private sector as China liaison to major corporations, died May 11 at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda after a heart attack. He was 75.
Gen. Fugh (pronounced "foo"), the first Chinese American general officer in the U.S. Army, was a Beijing native who left China with his family after the Communist takeover in 1949. He spent his 33-year military career in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, including a tour of duty in Vietnam as a judge advocate at the height of the war.
The advice to an accused about sexual offender registration is complicated. Cases such as Williams v. Lee and Keathley, No. ED 93827, from the Court of Appeals of Missouri, Eastern District, Division Five, decided May 4, 2010. This is a retroactivity case.
On February 5, 2000, Williams pled guilty in a military tribunal to one specification of carnal knowledge under Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice ("UCMJ"), and one specification of sodomy with a child under the age of 16 in violation of Article 125 of the UCMJ. No law — Missouri, federal, or military — required Williams to register as a sex offender at the time of his convictions.
However, with the passage of SORNA to police went out and required registration. But,
The Washington Post has this interesting piece about the status of stolen valor issues.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
