Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

The PBS Frontline special, “The Confessions” about false confessions and the Norfolk Four is now available.

Stars & Stripes reports. A U.S. soldier will spend more than two years in prison after a military judge found him guilty in a court-martial Tuesday of throwing a crowbar that struck a German motorcyclist in the head. Stars & Stripes reports. The sentence for an Air Force staff sergeant…

Thanks to a jab from RealityCheck.  Let’s parse the current defense information release from LTC Lakin’s defense counsel. His previous civilian attorney complicated his case and is partially responsible for two of these charges by advising LTC Lakin to refuse to report to his superior officer. I posted a while…

United States v. Brown is a good reminder of waiver of motions in pretrial agreements. The typical waiver is that the accused will “waive all waivable motions.”  This seems something of an oxymoron.  The provision is consistent with the idea that all nonjurisdictional motions are waived on a guilty plea…

Army Times reports. The defense does not plan to present any evidence when a military hearing resumes next week for the Army psychiatrist charged in last year’s deadly Fort Hood shootings, the lead defense attorney said Tuesday. John Galligan said the government had offered “no surprises” in presenting its case…

Thanks to Sentencing Law & Policy here is a paper that raises some thoughts on IAC for pretrial advice to clients.  As we know we won’t get anything solid on that from CAAF a la immigration because Denedo’s case is over.  But, . . . . Post Padilla: Padilla’s Puzzles…

Professor Colin Miller uses an Alabama case to remind us that a prior misdemeanor conviction is not admissible under Rule 609(a). Under this Rule, then, it is clear that a party cannot impeach a witness through evidence that the witness has a prior misdemeanor conviction for a crime not involving…

A little off topic, but heck, it’s funny. Two Philadelphia police officers have been charged with criminal conspiracy, robbery, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, theft, and other related charges, according to officials. Sean Alivera, 31, and Christopher Luciano, 23, allegedly robbed a supposed drug dealer of 20 pounds of marijuana…

United States v. Savard. We granted review to determine whether the military judge erred by failing to hold defense-requested pretrial hearings before ruling on Appellant’s written motions. We hold that, when one of the parties so requests, Rule for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) 905(h) requires that the military judge hold a hearing…

Misc. No. 11-8009/MC. Frank D. WUTERICH, Appellant v. David L. Jones, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Marine Corps, in his capacity as Military Judge, and United States, Appellees. CCA 200800183. Notice is hereby given that a writ-appeal petition for review of the decision of the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of…