Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (2d ed. 2000), Federal Judicial Center.  A third edition is in the works.

A little off message, but I suppose this item could be squeezed into previous posts about forensics. No longer "death by natural causes": The Associated Press writes, "police and medical examiners who thought a man died of natural causes changed their minds after funeral-home workers found bullet holes in his…

The full agenda for this year's Judicial Conference is now available on line.

United States v. Lopez-Medina, 461 F.3d 724 (6th Cir. 2006). Federal Evidence Review draws attention to this case on the issue of law enforcement testimony.  The case involved drugs.  In military prosecutions we have similar situations where law enforcement testifies about drugs. The circuit concluded that plain error resulted: “We…

Internal Exile:  Collateral Consequences of Conviction in Federal Laws and Regulations, A Collaboration of the American Bar Association Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, January 2009.  The Introduction says: This study collects and describes the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction…

In a cautionary tale, Prof. Colin Miller, If You Were In The Public Eye: Kentucky Court Finds That Third Party Statements Were Properly Excluded From A Public Report, EvidenceProf Blog, 24 February 2009. Professor Miller draws attention to a Kentucky case which has relevance to Mil. R. Evid. 803(4), the…

The oral argument transcript is now available in Rivera v. Illinois.

United States v. Rivera may not be the case to watch after all if the analysis is correct. Lyle Denniston, Analysis: How many ways to lose a case?, SCOTUSBlog, 23 February 2009.  In summary, By the time Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked a government lawyer which of several ways he…

In his first public statements since a 2005 double-murder arrest in Iraq, now-acquitted Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez of Rensselaer County said Tuesday he was "very, very innocent" of the slayings — yet expected a guilty verdict. This is reported at Veterans for Common-Sense.org, and is a reprint of: Robert Gavin,…

Prof. Colin Miller, The Sense Of The Past: Third Circuit Corrects Worst Present Sense Impression Ruling I Have Ever Seen, 23 February 2009. United States v Green, 2009 WL 385423 (3rd Cir. 2009). over Green's vigorous objection, the Government was permitted to introduce as substantive evidence a statement that Brown…