Below is the text of the sworn affidavit, dated April 21, in which Dr. MacDonell explains how knowledge he obtained while waiting to testify in the case could have changed dramatically its outcome,
in the court-martial of 1Lt Michael Behenna, for murder and other violations of the UCMJ.
McCarty & Fatigante, at BigGovernment blog.
Here is a interesting story of caution from Wired.com, and a potential court-martial for blogging in violation of the UCMJ.
But when he called President Obama a liar on his blog, and started using the site to go after his local school board, Grisham “found himself the target of an inspector general investigation and a threatened general letter of reprimand. Now his command is exploring formal charges against him,” Military Times reports.
Military Times reports:
Two items of interest from the November Army Lawyer for court-martial cases under the UCMJ.
Personal Jurisdiction: What Does It Mean for Pay to be “Ready for Delivery ”in Accordance with 10 U.S.C. § 1168(a)?
Know Your Ground: The Military Justice Terrain of Afghanistan
That is Professor Colin Miller’s entree to:
The Shrink(ing) Privilege, Take 2: New York Times Article Reports That Exceptions To Military Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege Are Hindering Therapy.
My post is here on the NYT article discussing the military patient-psychotherapist privilege at court-martial and under the UCMJ.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s defense attorney skirmished with Army commanders Wednesday over the timing of a sanity examination for the Fort Hood gunman, saying that his client is still too medically impaired to participate.
So begins a piece in the Dallas News. What’s the flaw. There is no judge that attorney Galligan can go to or appeal to.
"This is getting dirty," lawyer John Galligan said of the Army. "These guys have made it clear that they’re going for blood."
United States v. Story. Here the issue is two-fold: what is the response when the members want to call a witness, and what is permissible on appeal to demonstrate prejudice. ACCA found error in the military judge denying the members an opportunity to call a witness. On appeal, ACCA found that documents submitted by appellate government and appellate defense could not be considered. This seems odd, because the defense is trying to show prejudice from the error and the government is trying to show lack of prejudice.
When the members returned, immediately after calling the court to order and accounting for the parties, the following colloquy ensued:
MJ: Members, the bailiff indicated that you had a question? Colonel Meyer is shaking her head.
The Navy’s rule forcing sailors to “promptly” tell their commanding officers if they have been arrested for an off-base drunken-driving violation is unconstitutional, the Navy and Marine Corps’s highest military judges have ruled.
And so begins a Navy Times article on United States v. Serianne.
I have posted before about the new DoD regulation that requires persons E-6 and above to report all civilian convictions.
No, this isn’t an advert for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, or any other. It’s a reminder that
Air Force officials reinforce tattoo, body alteration policy.
Air Force Instruction 36-2903, Dress and Personal Appearance, states "Excessive tattoos and brands will not be exposed or visible while in uniform." Excessive is defined as any tattoo/brands exceeding one-quarter of the exposed body part and those above the collarbone when wearing an open collar uniform. The AFI also outlines the current provisions and prohibitions to include standards governing piercings and body alterations.
I have posted in connection with some comments about Major Hasan and his desire to have patients prosecuted at court-martial for war crimes and other offenses while deployed to Iraq.
Major Hasan’s war crimes trial requests, 17 November 2009.
The issue has gained new attention with the recent mass shootings at Fort Hood that killed 13 and wounded 43. In the weeks before the rampage, the accused gunman, Maj. Nidal M. Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, told colleagues and Army lawyers that he wanted to report soldiers who had admitted in counseling sessions that they witnessed or committed war crimes in Iraq or Afghanistan. War crimes can include acts like torture, murder, sexual assault and cruel treatment.
Whenever I talk about court-room lawyering I always emphasize that the person must first be themself and not try to become someone they aren’t. Once you decide who you are, your “style,” and how you will present, then you can take the other tools of advocacy and adapt them to your personality and form of presentation. Sure, you can be taught and learn about distracting mannerisms – the clicking pen, the walking back and forth, or about filler words, but you can’t change the essence of who you are when making a court-room presentation. My theory is to embrace your own self and then adapt the tools. So it was with interest I saw this item in the November issue of The Jury Expert.
Katherine James, Everything I Ever Needed To Know About Live Communication I Learned From Konstantin Stanislavski: Common Mistakes and Best Practices, 21(6) The Jury Expert, Nov. 2009.
The military has gone through its phase of employing actor/consultants to teach trial advocacy. I’m not completely a fan of the method, but I can see there are valuable teaching points. Here are some.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog