The Coast Guard has an interesting opinion in United States v. Sullivan, on a members panel stacking. A military accused does not have the same “jury” right as a civilian accused, but he does have the right to a panel (jury) that is fair and impartial. United States v. Roland,…
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
Worth the read
Here are a couple of articles worth the read if you have some time this weekend. The Reliability of Assault Victims’ Immediate Accounts: Evidence from Trauma Studies, Melissa Hamilton, University of Houston Law Center, September 7, 2014, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Vol. 26, 2015, Forthcoming Ms. Leveritt has recently taken on the…
A mixed but really good result?
Update 15.9.14. Here is a link to the government notice of an intent to appeal, and a motion I have filed with the ACCA. So, client is a medical provider initially accused of committing sexual contact by a, “fraudulent representation that the sexual contact served a professional purpose.” Six former patients…
CP distribution?
Prof. Berman at sentecing law and policy invites our attention to an interesting new decision from the Third. US v. Husmann, No. 13-2688 (3d Cir. Sept 3, 2014) (available here) . We all of us have an a client who is charged with distribution of CP because they were using…
They’ve already made up their minds
How many times during a trial do you try to guess what the members are thinking, and what their decision is – I would suggest we do that many times throughout a trial. We do this because we are responding to a client’s comment about a look, a question, or…
Prosecutors favorite-we’ve always done it that way
Friend Christian Capece liked a post on Linked-In “The most dangerous phrase is, “we’ve always done it that way.”” That amused me because it immediately brought to mind United States v. Fosler. And Fosler came to mind so readily because I was just discussing litigating issues with some younger counsel,…
The ambiguity of consent or lack of consent in sexual assault cases
The title of the article which is a must read: Honest False Testimony in Allegations of Sexual Offences.
An interesting military medical benefits case
Cronin v. United States, __ F.3d ___ (Fed. Cir. Aug. 28, 2014), deals with claims for injuries sustained during or aggravated by conditions of service. It is noteworthy to me because, among a number of significant claims of physical injury, the plaitiff raises issues of PTSD for which she was…
Up periscope
For some time now each of the Services have been undergoing a draw-down. Naturally, you would think that they would cut those with significant misconduct or performance issues, and that there should be any number who would fit into that category. Here is an interesting piece about some of the…
Men are victims too
Domestic violence is bad. But I would suggest that the issue is normally only dealt with as a women’s issue. This report should cause people to think – just a little bit – that men are not always the perpetrators, and that “alway believe the victim” – read the woman,…