My colleague at futurelawyer.com posted this today. While we don’t get such arcane testimony in a court-martial, there are certainly times when an expert witness’s testimony, or for that matter any witness forgets to speak in plain understandable words. Just a reminder.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
120 and severance
AFCCA has an order in United States v. Boore, a government appeal. The issue is severability of portions of Article 120. AFCCA holds that the military judge may sever the unconstitutional parts of Article 120, and instruct accordingly. Applying the severance doctrine to the case at hand, we have no…
Confirmation biased or pigheaded?
New York Times Sunday Review.
Collateral consequences-MSR Program
You may remember that CAAF dealt with MSRP in a number of cases. See e.g. United States v. Pena, 64 M.J. 259 (C.A.A.F. 2007)(not cruel and unusual punishment; not an increase in punishment based on the facts; failure to explain this collateral consequence doesn’t make plea improvident). We do not…
Remember Miranda
I remember studying Miranda and a couple of other significant constitutional law cases in school. We also learned that the case decision didn’t necessarily help the individual. It wasn’t Miranda, but another one got stabbed to death in jail after his case was decided, Escebedo, I think. So, Professor Friedman…
U.S. v. Savala–update
Petty Officer Savala was discharged from the naval service 28 July 2011.
Lee decided by NMCCA
DMLHS at CAAFLog is reporting a decision in United States v. Lee. NMCCA did not find error on any of the reasons advocated by the appellant. However, they set-aside the findings and authorized a rehearing. DMLHS notes that Capt Lee was represented by a non-Code 45 advocate: I listened to…
Wilkins summary disposition
On 27 July CAAF issued a summary disposition in: No. 11-0486/NA. U.S. v. Akeem A. WILKINS. CCA 201000289. Review granted on the following issue: WHETHER APPELLANT’S RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS OF LAW WAS VIOLATED WHEN HE WAS CONVICTED FOR ABUSIVE SEXUAL CONTACT AS A LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE OF AGGRAVATED SEXUAL…
Prosecutorial misconduct
Take a look at United States v. Magnon, in which NMCCA finds that a prosecutors closing argument on the merits was: The trial counsel’s argument was inartful; it was not a model of how a trial counsel should close his case; and it was improper. While portions of his argument…
Crawford
Where are we at. CrimProfBlog brings us: Cicchini on the Confrontation Clause Michael D. Cicchini has posted Dead Again: The Latest Demise of the Confrontation Clause (Fordham Law Review, Vol. 80, 2011) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court abandoned its Roberts “reliability” approach…