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Reservists on a court-martial panel?

As a result of the current National Guard and Reserve activations I, like many of my colleagues, find ourselves representing Guard or Reserve clients at court-martial.  From time to time they ask if they can have Guard or Reservists on their Members Panel (jury).  The answer is no they can't require Guard or Reserve panel members, unlike in administrative discharge boards.

Here though is an interesting challenge to the Canadian system of Panel Member selection.

CBC News, Lawyer challenges jury selection at N.S. soldier's court martial, 6 February 2009.

And as a reminder that the judicial tenure issue is still alive, at least outside the United States.

CBC News,  Soldier charged with manslaughter questions impartiality of judge, 13 January 2009.   This issue was resolved for UCMJ cases by United States v. Graf, 35 M.J. 450 (C.M.A. 1992), cert denied Graf v. United States, 510 U.S. 1085 (1994).

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