Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

h/t Prof. Berman. http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2012/08/what-should-a-registered-sex-offender-do-when-running-from-a-hurricane.html

Result – statements suppressed, and will be in the 9th because of Sessoms v. Runnels, No. 08-17790, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 17206 (9th Cir. 2012)  Wow.  What about Davis v. United States? Davis doesn’t apply because the ambiguous request came BEFORE the accused was advised of his Miranda rights.  So, why…

Federalevidence.com has this piece on about juries and social media, and a discussion of the model jury instruction. They also link to an interesting 22 November 2011 Federal Judicial Center report . The use of social media by jurors during trials and deliberations is not a common occurrence. Of the…

The new Mil. R. Evid. may not apply to any offense committed prior to it’s effective date?  Is there an argument that application to an offense prior to the effective date violates the ex-post facto clause.  See Calder v. Bull, 100 U.S. 1 (1798). Article I, section 9 of the…

Occasionally there is a case involving bite mark evidence and testimony.  This type of testimony is subject to challenge under Houser.  Here I am talking about a case where the bite mark testimony goes to prove the identity of the accused. So, to that end the defense needs resources to…

I have already posted about IAC prior to trial in connection with GP’s. Here’s a case, Ostrander v. Green, 46 F.3d 347 (4th Cir. 1995) – from the Fourth no less — that is very interesting because it makes clear there is a different standard of review that Strickland. In…

Adam A. Field, Beyond Michigan v. Bryant: A Practicable Approach to Testimonial Hearsay and Ongoing Emergencies, 2012 IL. L. Rev. 1265 (2012).

The Ottawa Citizen reports on a new publication.  The title of the new piece is, Former Office ‘amazed’ he stayed sane during court martial. Former infantry officer Robert Semrau, who was dismissed from the Canadian Forces for shooting a severely wounded Taliban insurgent on an Afghan battlefield, has ended a…

Andrea D. Lyon, The Promise of Effective Assistance of Counsel:  Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough, The Champion, NACDL, June 2012.

Proposed 18 USC § 3014, Duty to Disclose Favorable Information and Commentary Many recent cases have exposed the fact that federal prosecutors, whether through negligence or by design, all too often fail to abide by their constitutional duty to disclose information favorable to the defendant. To help ensure fairness in…