LTC Lakin, he is still a lieutenant colonel, comments on his appeal (reported on Military.com). "Realistically, I understand that a very small fraction [of appeals] get reviewed and a smaller fraction get overturned or anything," Lakin said. "But the appeals attorney has some issues he wants to bring up." I…
Professor Friedman, a true guru of “confrontation” issues notes: It appears that the next case in the Melendez-Diaz line will come very quickly. The Supreme Court granted cert today in Williams v. Illinois, No. 10-8505, seeking review of People v. Williams, 939 N.E.2d 268 (Ill. 2010). The case presents the…
There was a piece over the weekend that Bozivech would have his sentencing today. It appears it will be delayed until 8 August, reports the Miami Herald.
Goffman on the Jury: Real Juror’s Attention to the “Offstage” of trials. Social psychologist Erving Goffman, in his classic work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, provides a framework that explains why jurors may turn their attention at the courthouse to information not formally presented from the witness stand.…
Stars & Stripes reports on some “new” developments at the [in]famous USACIL. The military’s premier crime lab should be a place of sober scientific research, but lately it seems more like the set of a soap opera consumed with scandal and intrigue. In less than four years, at least six…
Several items crossed my .net over the last few days. The topic is not new and will remain with us for some time. Army Times reports: Officials at Joint Base Lewis-McChord believe they’re making progress against the stigma that keeps some soldiers from getting help for mental health issues. More…
Daily Journal blog is reporting that Bozicevich goes back to court on Monday for his sentencing hearing.
Many years ago I spent a lot of time prosecuting and defending “pack rats.” There was a slew of “national security cases” in the late 1980’s, post-Walker. It appears there is a new name for personnel who took classified material home either by accident (in the briefcase or notebook), or…
Army Times reports: A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier convicted in the deaths of three Afghan civilians last year is backing away from an earlier statement that one of his superiors explicitly approved the first killing. WAVY.com reports: Crew members of the Coast Guard Cutter Venturous engaged in clandestine hazing in…
The US Supreme Court has decided Bullcoming. Surrogate testimony is no good. The question presented is whether the Confrontation Clause permits the prosecution to introduce a forensic laboratory report containing a testimonial certification—made for the purpose of proving a particular fact—through the in-court testimony of a scientist who did not…