pregnant Tag Archives — Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

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January 15, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Larson said Hutchinson’s command did offer her child-care options when her plan fell through, but did not specify if those options included foster care, as was alleged by Courage to Resist.

"So far, Spc. Hutchinson has chosen not to take advantage of any of those options," Larson said. "A well-known veterans group was one of the groups offering to assist Spc. Hutchinson in caring for her child during her deployment. This group has an accredited child-care facility for soldiers in just these circumstances."

Coastal Courier reports. No specifics yet on a court-martial trial date.

Impact of pregnancy on readiness?

December 25, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

FrumForum interviewed retired Major Merideth A. Bucher, author of the much cited paper, The Impact of Pregnancy on U.S. Army Readiness.

Bucher explains that a woman who becomes pregnant ceases to be available for combat service. She will be returned home; her unit is left missing a body, a soldier.

She passionately told of her own experience: Two days before Desert Storm was to begin the female intelligence officer in the Major’s battalion became aware she was pregnant. Because she could not deploy and was sent home the battalion was left vulnerable by having to fight without an intelligence officer present. By losing one person everyone else has to work that much harder to get the mission accomplished. And when a woman soldier in particular gets pregnant, Bucher argues, “it weakens every female soldier standing as a member of that unit. If one woman does that it taints the water for everybody.”

More pregnancy issues.

December 22, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Here is the Order in question regarding getting pregnant while deployed to the AOR. So far as reported earlier there have not been any court-martials.

Bob McCarty has blogged the issue from what appears to be a non-lawyer perspective.

Discipline under new pregnancy rules

December 22, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Seven U.S. soldiers, including three men, have already been punished under six-week-old rules making pregnancy a violation of military law in northern Iraq.

Stars & Stripes reports.

The four soldiers who became pregnant were given letters of reprimand that will not remain a part of the permanent military file, Cucolo said, as were two of the male soldiers.

Get pregnant-get someone pregnant, go to jail

December 18, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

It is a possibility:

The Army general commanding U.S. forces in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of prohibitions for personnel under his command.

The policy, which went into effect Nov. 4, makes it possible to face punishment, including a court-martial and jail time, for becoming pregnant or impregnating a servicemember, according to the wording of the policy and confirmations from Army officials.

Major Hasan – the hardest job

November 11, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Who has the hardest job in the prosecution and defense of Major Hasan, by that I’m talking about the lawyers and the judge.

As many have already observed, the merits portion of Major Hasan’s trial at Fort Hood is likely a done deal, except for the potential mental health issues. I would even argue that it’s not necessary to know why Major Hasan killed a lot of innocent people in a very public way. There are 14 dead (I’m including the fetus) and a score or so physically injured. There are witnesses and apparently the weapon(s) have been found. The police officer who shot him can testify to chain of custody. With that evidence presented to the Members, who needs to know his motive to convict. A group of five to seven live witnesses can testify to victim impact, and have lots of letters standing by. Perhaps get some making a very simple video statement.

The elephant in the room will be his motive regardless of any evidence that he was or tried to associate with terrorists. With all of the media attention this case has and will continue to have, does anybody not understand and believe that regardless of what you tell the Members they will be thinking about what happened and why. That means you don’t need to present evidence of motive. Trying to prove Major Hasan is a terrorist or has terrorist ties isn’t going to aggravate the case any more than it is for a conviction and death penalty sentence. And it’s a conviction and sentence that will stick and not having to spend a long time in appellate review that people want and need.

Major Hasan — a new twist

November 10, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The LifeSiteNews.com is reporting:

While Hasan recovers at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, the Army is readying itself to charge Hasan in military court, where he could face the death-penalty. But prosecutors will have to charge Hasan under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which was amended in 2004 to include “Laci and Conner’s Law” or the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA).

The UVVA requires that the justice system charge the perpetrator of a violent crime against a pregnant woman, resulting in death or bodily injury to her unborn child, with committing a separate and distinct offence against the mother’s unborn child. The law specifies that the punishment applied for the injury or death of the child must be the same – with the exception of the death penalty – as if “that injury or death occurred to the unborn child’s mother.”

Major Hasan’s mental health defense — or something else

November 10, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Will Major Hasan successfully use PTSD as a defense, or will it at least become a mitigating factor to be considered. If the trial is at Fort Hood, as seems likely at the moment, many of the Members (jury) panel will already have quite a bit of extra-judicial information.

Here are some links relating to secondary traumatization.

Zimmering, Munroe, & Gulliver, Secondary Traumatization in Mental Health Care Providers, 20 Psych. Times (Apr. 2003).