Here are Dwight “My Liege” Sullivan’s summary of the military death penalty since 1984. Under the current military death penalty system, which President Reagan promulgated in January 1984, there have been 52 known capital courts-martial resulting in 16 adjudged death sentences, for a 30.8% death sentencing rate. (Convening authorities commuted…
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
Worth the read 2
Making Padilla Practical: Defense Counsel and Collateral Consequences at Guilty Plea Gabriel J. Chin University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law; University of Arizona School of Government and Public Policy Howard Law Journal, Vol. 54, No. 3, p. 101, 2011 Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 11-17 Abstract:…
Worth the read
Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security Daniel J. Solove George Washington University Law School Daniel J. Solove, NOTHING TO HIDE: THE FALSE TRADEOFF BETWEEN PRIVACY AND SECURITY, Chapter 1, Yale University Press, 2011 Abstract: "If you’ve got nothing to hide," many people say, "you shouldn’t worry…
MEJA and stuff
Human Rights First posted: Today [a post on 25 May 2011], the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing titled, “Holding Criminals Accountable: Extending Criminal Jurisdiction to Government Contractors and Employees Abroad” addressing the need to clarify criminal jurisdiction over U.S. contractors. Human Rights First has long called for…
Manning
Wired.com reports: Almost one year to the day after Army investigators arrested intelligence analyst Bradley Manning on suspicion of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, the ex-hacker who turned him in is set to meet with the chief prosecutor on the case for the first time. “I’m…
New drug of “choice”
And what a choice. Schriever AFB paper has a report about “bath salts” being the latest drug craze – “scourge.” CPT K. and I had this come up this week in a drug case. We were putting the prosecution’s primary witness (the accomplice and co-conspirator) on trial for his drug…
Hashing out the maximums
What is the maximum potential sentence for the use of hashish in a combat zone – two years or five? Kudos to CPT K in a recent case he and I did together in getting the MJ to rule that it was two years. 1. The MJ agreed the MCM…
Unintended consequences
United States v. Hudson is a new unpublished opinion from AFCCA. The DC challenged a member for implied bias. At trial, after Lt Col DB and the other members were selected as court members but before opening statements, the military judge advised the members that to avoid the appearance of…
Flowered up
Here is SCOTUSBlogs summary of Fowler v. United States. Might be something in here for a case or two.
The importance of being honest
Professor Friedman at confrontationright blog has an illustration of why it may be important to have the “real” analyst at trial: The defendant was charged with possession with intent to distribute a quantity of methamphetamine of 4 grams or more but less than 200 grams. In Texas, this is a…