Should you want to follow the case – from a defense perspective – here are the three most common websites to follow.
WorldNetDaily. This piece about commentary from MG Paul Vallely, USA, appears to be the latest piece: “Retired Army general: LtCol Lakin has a ‘valid point.’
The filing of charges may, however, be part of the still-unrevealed strategy Lakin and his legal counselors are pursuing.
An accused has a limited right to counsel in the military. A very common event for defense counsel is PCS, release from active duty, and orders to deployment. Marine Corps Times reports:
A military appeals court has thrown out the 2007 conviction of a Marine infantry squad leader accused of murdering an innocent man in the Iraqi town of Hamdaniya.
Pvt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, a former sergeant now serving an 11-year sentence in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., will be released from confinement if the Navy does not appeal the court’s Thursday ruling, his attorney, Capt. Babu Kaza, told Marine Corps Times. However, Hutchins also could face a new set of charges if the Marine Corps wants to readdress his case.
The safeguardourconstitution.com website has posted the charge sheet for LTC Lakin.
WND reports that:
The filing of charges may, however, be part of the still-unrevealed strategy Lakin and his legal counselors are pursuing.
TPMMuckraker reports:
Appearing on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show today, the attorney for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the Birther Army doctor who is said to be facing a court martial for refusing orders, suggested that if his client is court-martialled, he will use discovery to try to further the Birther crusade.
Jensen said he expects an investigation of Lakin under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice — which precedes a court martial — to begin as early as today or tomorrow.
WorldNetDaily reports that LTC Lakin will be confessing on G. Gordon Liddy’s TV show tomorrow.
The officer refusing Army orders until Barack Obama documents his eligibility to be president and commander in chief is hitting the airwaves tomorrow to answer questions about his challenge to the president.
Lt. Col. Terry Lakin is scheduled to be on the G. Gordon Liddy show tomorrow from 10-11 a.m. EDT.
Stars & Stripes reports.
Reversing an earlier decision, the Air Force said Monday it intends to discharge a lesbian Air Force officer who had remained in the military despite openly declaring her homosexuality.
An Air Force general earlier this year concluded that Lt. Robin R. Chaurasiya should not be discharged, saying she had declared her sexual orientation for the purpose of avoiding military service.
Sad, but not unusual, from The False Rape Society.
My story started last summer when we got back from Iraq. My best friend and I went to a night club and long story short I had sex with a woman. This woman was a female soldier and ended up being late to work the next morning. I was on leave at the time, so I didn’t have to go too work. She accused me of raping her, because she was going to show up to work drunk and late.
. . . the charges are being dropped . . .
Paul C. Giannelli (Case Western Reserve University School of Law) has posted Microscopic Hair Comparisons: A Cautionary Tale on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Report on forensic science, “testimony linking microscopic hair analysis with particular defendants is highly unreliable.” This is a stunning conclusion because hair evidence has been admitted in numerous trials for over a century.
The NAS Report was not the first to raise issues concerning hair evidence. In 1996, the Department of Justice issued a report discussing the exonerations of the first twenty-eight convicts through the use of DNA technology. This report highlighted the significant role that hair analysis played in a number of cases of these miscarriages of justice, including some death penalty cases. In 1998, a Canadian judicial inquiry into the wrongful conviction of Guy Paul Morin was released. His original conviction was based, in part, on hair evidence. The judge conducting the inquiry recommended that “[t]rial judges should undertake a more critical analysis of the admissibility of hair comparison evidence as circumstantial evidence of guilt.”
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:
SCOTUSBlog has a podcast of today’s oral argument.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog