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An American war resister one step away from being extradited to the United States has learned she’ll get to stay in Canada a little longer. A judge has ordered a new pre-removal risk assessment for Kimberly Rivera, a 27-year-old mother of three who deserted the U.S. army in 2007 because of her opposition to the war in Iraq. (The Canadian Press) |
Monday, August 10, 2009: Fourth Circuit affirms CIA contractor detainee abuse conviction, Andrew Morgan
[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] on Monday affirmed [opinion, PDF] the conviction of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] contractor on assault charges related to the abuse of an Afghan detainee [JURIST report]. The court found that the district court had properly exercised maritime and territorial jurisdiction [18 USC § 7 text] over the actions of David Passaro [JURIST news archive] while he was employed by the CIA at Asadabad Firebase [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] in Afghanistan. Although the court rejected the construction of "military … mission" used by the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina [official website] as too narrow, the duration and nature of the site’s use, and improvements made to the fortification lead the Fourth Circuit "to conclude that it possesses all the qualities of a permanent U.S. military base abroad, albeit on a smaller scale …."
h/tip JURIST
Holly Lewis reports from the court-martial of war resister Victor Agosto, who won even before his trial for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan began. (She saw more of the summary court-martial than his lawyer did.)
August 10, 2009
Through the looking glass
Here’s the trial lawyers guide to those difficult to read, hard to interpret, and impossible to reconcile appellate decisions.
/hat tip the Onion, one of my favorite newspapers.
Lynndie England of Abu Ghraib fame will be speaking about her autobiography this Friday, 14 August 2009, at noon, at the Madison Building of the Library of Congress , Room LM139.
LCPA Veterans Forum
August 14, 2009, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
LM 139 First floor James Madison building
Lynndie England discusses her biography "Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World." Contact: (202) 707-5034
/tip Jim Klimaski
Here is a neat website that allows you to calculate a deadline and due dates. Not an application, so there’s nothing to install on your computer or iPhone or BB – and for the overhead conscious it’s free.
WolframAlpha.
There’s a free download which will allow you to have a widget in your Vista sidebar, or you can add to your Explorer or Firefox
We previously noted the serious allegations against attorney Paul Bergrin for alleged racketeering, witness tampering, and murder.
Stunning developmentDavid Kocieniewski, Lawyer’s Ways Spelled Murder, U.S. Is Charging, NY Times, 20 May 2009. In June Mr. Bergrin plead not guilty to these charges, according to NJ.com. |
Sarah Rice, The Star-Ledger |
Here another stunning development. Here is a report of his having plead guilty in a different case involving a prostitution ring and acting as counsel for the “ring.”
N.J. lawyer pleads guilty to helping run N.Y. prostitution ring, by Joe Ryan/The Star-Ledger.
Bergrin, a former Army major with a thin mustache, wore a dark grey pinstriped suit and red tie today as he stood before Judge Thomas Farber in lower Manhattan. Afterward, he expressed relief at pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. …
Authorities say that’s when Bergrin took over the business. The lawyer was arrested in 2007, charged in indictments with money laundering, conspiracy, promoting prostitution and misconduct by an attorney.
But in the end, prosecutors agreed to much lesser charges. Bergrin faces up to three years probation and must forfeit $50,000 when sentenced Sept. 15. He did not plead guilty to a felony and, consequently, will not automatically lose his right to practice law, said his attorney, Gerald Shargel.
Here is a link to the Bond Amendment. The amendment replaced what was known as the Smith Amendment. There were good and bad changes. Good was the change to “served” rather than “sentenced” to more than one year; bad is that all agencies and all types of clearance are covered.
Now, just because the client may not be barred by the Bond Amendment, they can still lose or have revoked their clearance based on the underlying conduct for which court-martialed.
(1) An accused may not enter inaccurate, inconsistent, improvident, or uninformed pleas of guilty, and the military judge may not permit the accused to do so. UCMJ art. 45, 10 U.S.C. § 845 (1988); see United States v. Schwabauer, 37 M.J. 338 (C.M.A. 1993).
(2) Therefore, before the military judge may accept the accused’s pleas of guilty, the military judge must personally inquire of the accused as to the factual basis for the plea. R.C.M. 910(c), (e); Care, 40 C.M.R. at 253; see also United States v. Craney, 23 C.M.A. 519, 50 C.M.R. 658 (1975); United States v. Daniels, 39 M.J. 789 (N.M.C.M.R. 1993).
(3) The facts revealed by the accused must objectively support the plea. Schwabauer, 37 M.J. at 341 (citing United States v. Davenport, 9 M.J. 364, 367 (C.M.A. 1980)).
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Ex-soldier appeals court-martial, Rochelle Hines, Florida AP. (Hopefully it’s not his lawyer who has the names of the appellate courts wrong.)
Camilo Mejia is the first GI who served in Iraq to have publicly resisted the war. He was imprisoned for refusing to return. Today, he is appealing his bad conduct discharge from the military. We speak to Mejia along with his attorney, Anjana Samant of the Center for Constitutional Rights. [includes transcript]
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
