Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

Briscoe petitioner’s brief filed.

September 2, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Here is a link to the brief in Briscoe v. Virginia. The case is a follow on to Crawford and Melendez-Diaz.

Here is the Issue as reported by SCOTUSWiki.

Briscoe v. Commonwealth of VA: If a state allows a prosecutor to introduce a certificate of a forensic laboratory analysis, without presenting the testimony of the analyst who prepared the certificate, does the state avoid violating the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment by providing that the accused has a right to call the analyst as his own witness?

They take the “Queens shilling.”

September 2, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The “birthers” within the military community continue their legal quest to have President Obama declared not legally president and for their orders to active duty cancelled.

Here is the initial part of a pleading filed on behalf of a medical doctor called to active duty with a 5 September report date.

Plaintiff Captain Dr. Connie Rhodes has received what appear to be facially valid orders mobilizing her to active duty with the United States Army in Iraq on September 5th, 2009 (Exhibit A). Captain Rhodes is both a US army officer and a medical doctor, a flight surgeon. On May 15th of this year 501 brigade out of Fort Campbell, KY, currently stationed in Iraq, has requested a support of medical personal in Iraq. Two days ago, August the 23rd, an order was given through the chain of command via e-mail for Captain Rhodes to arrive in San Antonio TX, Fort Sam Houston for Tactical Combat Medical Care Course (TCMC) to be held from August 30th till September 4t and next day, on September the 5th to arrive in Fort Benning in Columbus GA for immediate deployment to Iraq for a period of one year and twelve days from September 5th, 2009 until September 17th 2010. Captain Dr. Connie Rhodes wants to serve her country and fulfill her tour of duty, however as a US army officer and a medical doctor she has severe reservations regarding legitimacy of Barack Obama as the Commander in Chief and repercussions of her service under his orders, particularly in light of mounting evidence of him having allegiance to other Nations and citizenship of Kenya, Indonesia and Great Britain.

Allusions and comparisons to MJ.

September 2, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Suffolk cop docked pay for criticizing commissioner

September 1, 2009 By REID J. EPSTEIN,

A Suffolk police officer and Iraq War veteran who criticized Commissioner Richard Dormer at a public meeting has been docked five days pay for his comments.

Officer Mike Simonelli, 37, who said he is set to deploy to Afghanistan with his Army Reserve unit, compared Dormer – during testimony before the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee – to a turncoat military commander who had defected to the Iraqi side.

AFA: One major faces court martial for rape, another arrested for child porn

September 1, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

September 01, 2009 4:05 PM, by: Tom Reoder, THE GAZETTE

Two Air Force Academy majors are wrapped up in separate sex crime cases. One was arrested Monday on child pornography charges.

Another will hear opening arguments tomorrow in a court martial where he’s charged with a string of sexual assaults.

Request Mast – not.

September 1, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

"The Lincoln Log On This Day." Telegraph – Herald (Dubuque). Telegraph Herald (Dubuque). 2009. HighBeam Research. 29 Aug. 2009 <http://www.highbeam.com>.

August 13, 1863: President Lincoln writes to Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt regarding Major Alexander Montgomery’s dismissal from the Army. Montgomery allegedly remarked that "President Lincoln ought to have his dam’d black heart cut out for issuing his proclamation of Emancipation." Lincoln writes, "As the principal charge, can be given the appearance at least of being merely personally offensive to me, and as [Montgomery] denies it, I think he should have a Court- Martial, rather than to abide my arbitrary dismissal. Please give him the Court-Martial if he desires it."

Army TJAG Holt- credit Wikipedia.

Ashby and Schweitzer aff’d by CAAF

August 31, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

CAAF issued its opinion in United States v. Ashby today affirming the decision of NMCCA.

Leonard Wood case over.

August 31, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Here was a story from KansasCity.com on 28 August 2009:

Soldier accused of killing set for trial, The Associated Press

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. | A soldier at Fort Leonard Wood is set to go on trial on charges of killing another soldier’s wife.

Spc. Jermaine Johnson was originally to face a court martial trial in May, but the trial date was changed a couple times. The proceeding is scheduled to start today at the mid-Missouri Army base.

Law keeps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder out of jail

August 31, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Off topic, but interesting to see how one state has decided to approach returning combat veterans with mental health issues.

By Chris Roberts / El Paso Times

Posted: 08/30/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO — Combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder who are accused of certain crimes may soon have a choice between a trial or mental-health treatment.

Office-in-a-briefcase tip for now.

August 30, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Office Tab.

Do you (as you should) use Firefox as your browser? If so, you are perhaps used to using tabs for opening multiple windows. I’m told even Explorer does that now. Also, Adobe and my favorite Nitro PDF also use tabs to navigate between documents. Anyway, here is a potential useful tool for your Office programs to set up tabs.

I’m a confirmed WordPerfect user – it’s so much better than Word – but I understand people are forced to use Word.

Military terminates Rendon contract

August 30, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

For whatever reason it appears the military will stop (or reduce) profiling of journalists covering matters in Afghanistan. Here’s:

Kevin Baron, Stars and Stripes, Mideast edition, Monday, August 31, 2009

RELATED STORIES:

Army used profiles to reject reporters

Pentagon: Reporter profiling under review

Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters

Journalists’ recent work examined before embeds

In the newsroom: Military puts its spin on PR story

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. military is canceling its contract with a controversial private firm that was producing background profiles of journalists seeking to cover the war that graded their past work as “positive,” “negative” or “neutral,” Stars and Stripes has learned.

“The Bagram Regional Contracting Center intends to execute a termination of the Media Analyst contract,” belonging to The Rendon Group, said Col. Wayne Shanks, chief of public affairs for International Security Assistance Forces–Afghanistan.