Fayobserver reports:
Timothy Hennis’ trial record is now in the hands of Maj. Gen. Rodney Anderson, Fort Bragg’s acting commanding general, a Fort Bragg spokeswoman said Friday.
Hennis’ attempt at a new court-martial was denied late last month by a military judge, meaning his case now moves to Fort Bragg’s commanding general for review.
AP reports:
Two women testified at a military hearing Tuesday that they would not have had sex with an airman had they known he was HIV positive, and one said she believed him when he said he wasn’t because he was in the Air Force.
Professor Friedman has put up the transcript of argument in Michigan v. Bryant, a Crawford case.
WOKV.com reports:
The NASA astronaut who made international headlines after attacking a romantic rival with pepper spray at the Orlando International Airport in 2007 spent Thursday in a military courtroom at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
The government is asking a Navy review board to recommend discharging Captain Lisa Nowak and reduce her rank and pay grade.
I posted on Hennis just the other day in terms of one reporters view of the weight of the evidence.
Crime & Consequences picks up on a point.
Myron Pitts, who covered the Hennis trial for the Fayetteville Observer, has this article summing up the evidence. The whole story is worth a read, but my favorite line is this:
I expect we’ll see several commentary’s about the Hennis trial. Here is one from Myron Pitts, FayObserver.com, which he calls, “Evidence adds up in support of Hennis verdict.” (Along with the article is a great list of links to prior reporting on the case.)
I saw a military jury convict Hennis on April 8 and sentence him to die Thursday[.]
Hennis’ lawyer, Frank Spinner, said at the bottom of the courthouse steps that the jury never got to know his client, who did not testify. The jurors instead were treated to gruesome photos of the murder scene, he said.
Washington Post reports that:
A military jury has sentenced a soldier to die for killing a North Carolina mother and her two children in 1985.
FayObserver notes the issue yesterday where the members wanted answers about parole should he be sentenced to life. I found this piece odd.
The jury left the courthouse at Fort Bragg about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday evening without a decision on a sentence for Hennis: life in prison or the death penalty. A death sentence requires a unanimous vote of all 14 jurors; a life sentence requires agreement from at least 11 of the jurors.
Hennis was convicted of premeditated murder, so it’s one or the other life or death. The paper seems to have picked up on the three-quarters vote needed for a sentence in excess of 10 years. In this case he’s already going to get life, the question is whether all 14 members will vote to terminate it.
Remember that Hennis’s crimes occured before the change which permitted LWOP. So, Army Times reports:
Court recessed at 5:40 p.m. after the jury deliberated for more than two hours and also waited for the answer to three questions, including whether Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis would be eligible for parole if given a life sentence.
Judge Col. Patrick Parrish told the jury that "life means life" and reminded jurors of his instructions to impose a sentence they view as fair.
The family of a former Fort Bragg soldier convicted of killing a Fayetteville woman and two small children in 1985 on Monday begged a military jury not to sentence him to death for the crimes.
The panel of 14 Army officers and enlisted personnel last week found Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis guilty of three counts of premeditated murder and is considering his sentence.
1. SEALS:
Kokomo Perspective reports that:
Rep. Burton issued the following statement after the Navy dropped several charges against two Navy SEALs who are accused of mistreating terrorist mastermind Ahmed Hashim Abed, the man believed to be responsible for the infamous mutilations of four American contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog