Army officials agreed to delay a mental evaluation for the man suspected of going on a shooting spree at Fort Hood until after a military court hearing that will determine if he will stand trial, his attorney said Wednesday.
Houston Chronicle.com reports.
Lamb denied a request for civilian mental health experts to be on the panel, Galligan said, adding that "we will continue to fight that."
Articles Tagged with UCMJ
Major Hasan follow-up
You’ll remember some time ago now that a suspect was arrested trying to visit Major Hasan while in hospital.
A Texas man accused of saying he legally represented alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan is bipolar and was off his medication, his lawyer said.
Senan Kahtan Abrahem of San Antonio was released Monday on unsecured bond after his lawyer told a federal magistrate Abrahem had resumed his medication and was not a flight risk, the San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday.
Major Hasan update
An attorney for the Army psychiatrist accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood said Monday he wants his client’s mental evaluation delayed, citing a potential conflict of interest with the exam panel.
Army officials previously appointed a three-member board of military mental health professionals to determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan is competent to stand trial and his mental status the day of the November shooting, which left 13 dead and dozens wounded on the Texas Army post.
Up periscope – Weekend Edition 320110
Fort Lewis case of the soldier accused of causing the death of his 16 year old girlfriend with a drug overdose.
A 20-year-old Fort Lewis soldier has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of his 16-year-old girlfriend in his barracks.
A military judge ruled Friday that Pvt. Timothy Bennitt was guilty of “aiding and abetting” Leah King’s wrongful use of the painkiller oxymorphone and anxiety pill Xanax.
Up periscope – 190110
Army authorities are now claiming that Galesburg soldier Spc. Billy Miller had [AP] on his computer as well as alleged [CP] . Miller’s tour in Afghanistan has been involuntarily extended by the army while it investigates charges of possession of [CP] and failing to obey a general order. . . . But now military officials say the failing to obey a general order charge relates to pornography involving adults found on the Illinois National Guard soldier’s computer. Soldiers are not allowed to possess pornography in Afghanistan[.]
Galesburg.com reports.
A child pornography charge and a related count filed against an Illinois Army National Guard soldier in Afghanistan do not stem from family photos of a young relative, a U.S. Army spokesman told The Associated Press on Tuesday. . . . "In this case however, it was important to set the record straight with regards to the photos of the (relative) being portrayed as evidence leading to [CP] charges in this case. They are not," Clementson wrote.
Shaken baby syndrome
Does it exist or not. Here are a couple of news articles about a pending case in Fairfax, VA.
Shaken baby syndrome itself is put on trial in Fairfax court
CAAF grants
Three interesting grants from CAAF in the last few days.
No. 07-0401/NA. U.S. v. Russell B. MULLINS. CCA 200200988. Review granted on the following issues:
WHETHER THE LOWER COURT IN HOLDING THAT THERE WAS NOTHING IMPERMISSIBLE IN THE MILITARY JUDGE ALLOWING THE GOVERNMENT TO INTRODUCE LIE DETECTOR TESTIMONY IN VIOLATION OF MILITARY RULE OF EVIDENCE 702.
Crawford – Melendez-Diaz – urinalysis
Here is a case from federalevidence.com:
Supervisor expert testified about his role in the peer review process; passing reference to the testing chemist’s conclusion did not violate the Confrontation Clause; circuit also distinguishes Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. __, 129 S.Ct. 2527 (2009), in United States v. Turner," _ F.3d _ (7th Cir. Jan. 12, 2010) (No. 08-3109)
A recent Seventh Circuit case revisits the issue of expert testimony which refers to the analysis of another expert. Is the Confrontation Clause violated when a supervisor testifies about the peer review process, his role in confirming reviewing the test results, and the initial results of another chemist? On the fact of the case, the circuit concluded there was no constitutional violation.
Up periscope weekend edition – 170110
A military court in Kuwait has convicted a third soldier in connection with the August suicide of 19-year-old Keiffer Wilhelm. Staff Sgt. Enoch Chatman of West Covina, Calif., received three months’ confinement and a written reprimand from the commanding general and was reduced two pay levels to a specialist. Chatman was among four soldiers charged with a variety of crimes after Wilhelm’s self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Aug. 4.
Mansfield News Journal reports.
A war resister who fled the U.S. for Canada, but was deported to face a court-martial, has been released from confinement. Cliff Cornell spent less than a year in a military prison at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and was released this morning [15 January 2010]. Cornell, who fled the U.S. for Canada in 2005 to avoid having to fight in Iraq, wants to return to Gabriola Island, B.C., Canada.
Police reports are not evidence
Records, reports, statements, or data compilations, in any form, of public offices or agencies, setting forth…matters observed pursuant to duty imposed by law as to which matters there was a duty to report, excluding, however, in criminal cases matters observed by police officers and other law enforcement personnel.
In other words, police reports are not admissible in criminal cases. But why? That was the question addressed by Judge Posner in his recent opinion in United States v. Hatfield, 2010 WL 114930 (7th Cir. 2010), although his analysis was irrelevant to his conclusion.
That left the Seventh Circuit with the question of why police reports are inadmissible in criminal cases. The court noted that