A favorite blog – federalevidencereview – has this: Second Circuit confirms that statements made by a co-conspirator to an undercover agent may be admitted without violating the Confrontation Clause where the co-conspirator “was unaware that he was speaking to agents for the government or that his statements might later be…
The Agenda for the CAAF Judicial Conference is here. The agenda is back closer to mission and less of the interesting but arguably irrelevant topics. Of special interest is Prof. Berman from Sentencing Law & Policy. I read his excellent blog everyday. He’s been talking for some time now about…
Yesterday the Navy Office of the Judge Advocate General’s Criminal Law Division recommended that trial counsel continue to request that the military judge give the Benchbook instruction in Article 120(c)(2) cases. The recommendation stated that CAAF’s decision in Prather “does not change the landscape for Navy prosecutors as drastically as…
I posted the other day about the ongoing passionate dispute about the existance of SBS as a valid “diagnosis.” Here is an NPR piece with a little more perspective.
MELENDEZ-DIAZ ACQUITTED. Courtesy of Professor Friedman counsel in several confrontation cases including the upcoming Bullcoming. Boston.com reports: A Jamaica Plain man has been acquitted in a retrial of a cocaine trafficking case that went to the US Supreme Court and resulted in a landmark decision affecting evidence in criminal trials…
United States v. Edwards. Good case for a refresher on custody and confinement and their distinctions. Whether an accused is guilty of escape from custody or escape from confinement logically depends upon the accused’s status at the time of the escape. Article 95, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 895 (2006). We…
Bullcoming’s Reply Brief is here courtesy of Prof. Friedman.
Marine Corps Times reports: More than six years after a Marine corporal was charged with desertion for allegedly faking his own kidnapping in Iraq, his family is once again making rumblings about clearing his name. The effort, however, wouldn’t play out in military court. Instead, the Utah family of Wassef…
United States v. Prather. We granted review to address the burden shifts found in Article 120(t)(16), UCMJ, when an accused raises the affirmative defense of consent to a charge of aggravated sexual assault by engaging in sexual intercourse with a person who was substantially incapacitated. We conclude that the statutory…
Yesterday I posted about an AFMC legal opinion that military personnel and their families could be prosecuted for reviewing any of the “classified” materials released in the hush hush case. Air Force Times reports: The Air Force is backing off the threat by one of its major commands to pursue…