The Supreme Court decided Ortiz v. United States, an appeal from CAAF, today. Bottom line, This Court has jurisdiction to review the CAAF’s decisions. The judicial character and constitutional pedigree of the court-martial system enable this Court, in exercising appellate jurisdiction, to review the decisions of the court sitting at its…
Crime & Consequences blog has this story. The U.S. Supreme Court today took up Garza v. Idaho, No. 17-1026, involving the intersection of two recurring themes: lawyer decisions v. client decisions in the conduct of a case and how to apply rules developed for trials to the context of plea-bargained cases, which most cases…
My first GCM involved eyewitness identification and a motion to suppress based on an improperly suggestive show-up when the client was arrested. He was handcuffed in the back of the police car and the armed robbery victim was brought to the police car and asked ”is that him” or words…
From time to time I recommend articles, cases, or books to read that may be of interest and help to practitioners. Here are couple of plays to add to the mix, courtesy of Global Military Justice Reform blog, and I quote. Anthony Thommasini of The New York Timeshas written this strong and quite positive…
Once the MCIO gets a “confession” or DNA in a sexual assault case, it seems, they stop investigating–bad. Whether you have DNA or not–whether you are trial counsel or defense counsel–gathering non-DNA evidence can be vital to your case. Complaining witness says she and accused were at a bar drinking…
The director of public prosecutions has pledged to apologise over failures in 47 rape and serious sexual offence cases where vital evidence was withheld from defence lawyers. From Juliet Bremner with ITV(UK). On Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed that issues with disclosure had been identified in 47 of…
“of late, an important shift has occurred in the views of state and lower federal courts, which have increasingly found fault with “new-generation” SORN laws, which in many respects are more expansive and onerous than those condoned by the” Supreme Court in Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84 (2003) (cleaned up?). In the…
(cleaned up) Yes, back in 1976 I got my Bluebook and throughout the three years of law school, it was a regular reference. Ah, but it continues to be a daily tool–for motions, briefs, and such. I fear one day I’ll Bluebook a conversation with a relative or friend in…
Daniel Epps, Harmless Errors and Substantial Rights. 131 HARV. L. REV. 2117 (2018). The harmless constitutional error doctrine is as baffling as it is ubiquitous. Although appellate courts rely on it to deny relief for claimed constitutional violations every day, virtually every aspect of the doctrine is subject to fundamental…
The rule of lenity is something you should have in the toolbox regardless of being a trial or appellate counsel. Intisar A. Rabb, The Appellate Rule of Lenity: Responding to Abbe R. Gluck & Richard A. Posner, Statutory Interpretation on the Bench: A Survey of Forty-Two Judges on the Federal Courts of Appeals. …