Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

David Mills hosts a fabulous blog — Courtoons. Join him at his site daily.  Here is the entry for 10 February 2009, a situation well known to appellate defense counsel. var addthis_pub="mljucmj";

Evan Knappenberger, Acknowledge soldier's right to object, Seattle PI.com, 9 February 2009. Mr. Knappenberger is described as, "an Iraq War veteran and a Davis-Putter Scholar at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham." He argues that war objectors should be treated the same as conscientious objectors.

Yesterday (090209) A.F.C.C.A. updated its online opinions.  There are three worth reading for the trial practitioner. United States v. Curran, ACM 37185 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. 22 January 2009).  This is an interesting issue where the prosecution was allowed to introduce evidence on sentencing about the time and effort involved…

Andrew Gilmore, Mexico publishes law establishing database of mobile phone users, Paper Chase, JURIST, 10 February 2009.

Do you have quite a few websites you browse every day, or every week?  Then you should consider installing the Morning Coffee plug-in to your Firefox browser. If you are like me and look at all of the court's websites everyday, as well as other law related sites, it can…

CAAFLog has noted that NMCCA has scheduled oral argument in United States v. Craig, No. NMCCA 200800716 The two issues are: I. WHETHER THE APPELLANT’S GUILTY PLEA TO DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY WAS IMPROVIDENT, AS THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE THAT APPELLANT DELIVERED ANY UNLAWFUL IMAGES TO ANYONE? II. WHETHER THE…

The Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals updated their opinions today.  Several may have value for discussion, more later.

Earlier I posted an item on how to interpret email headers. Here is an interesting article about the email headers — metadata. Tresa Baldas, Metadata Grows in Legal Import, The National L. J., 26 January 2009. In cases where the prosecution evidence consists of emails, metadata may be very helpful…

I wanted to follow-up on some thoughts regarding my "office-in-a-briefcase"  (which many of you know is literally true for me). You can find suitable scanners, color printers, and of course computers, which can fit within one briefcase.  All you need at that point is access to the internet.  Internet access…

Colin Miller, Into The Dawn To Montana: Montana Moves Closer To Adopting Sex Crime Character Evidence Rules, 9 February 2009. A reminder that rules of evidence are in many instances political responses, not reality.