Recruiters and fake high school graduation and home schooling certificates, and now this:
The U.S. Army is investigating soldiers who bought degrees from an illegal diploma mill that was based in Spokane and resulted in prison time for its operators.
The Army’s Human Resources Command is using a list of customers of the diploma mill operated by Dixie and Steve Randock obtained and posted online last summer by The Spokesman-Review.
Talking to a group of relaxing Soldiers former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld reiterated that you have to go to war in what you’ve got.
Military.com, 22 May 2009.
“Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage,” Rumsfeld Robert Gates said, adding that Specialist Zachary Boyd may have hit on a new kind of psychological warfare. “I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban.
Wife Doubts PTSD Bigamy Excuse, Military.com, 22 May 2009.
A Missouri woman whose husband was cleared of bigamy said she does not believe his claim that post-traumatic stress disorder made him forget his marriage.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Repeal, Don’t Defend:
In today’s WSJ, Brian Hughes, a former Army Ranger twice awarded the Commendation Medal, makes a powerful case for ending "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Welcome to the real world.
Earl Kelly, Academy Justice Tilted Toward Women: Double Standard in Mid Sex Cases During Rempt Era, The (Annapolis) Capital, 17 May 2009.
This issue is not limited to the Naval Academy. This is a natural all too predictable outcome of the pendulum shift.
Wisconsin (five days before Weaver) finds GPS tracking reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, but it is troubled by it and urges the legislature to limit it. State v. Sveum, 2009 Wisc. App. LEXIS 343 (May 7, 2009).
The New York Court of Appeals decided Weaver v. People, No. 53 (May 12, 2009), holding that the NY Constitution prohibits the use of GPS transmitters on vehicles without a warrant, following other state courts analyzing the issue under their constitutions.
The University of Pennsylvania PENNumbra has an interesting dialogue about plea bargaining, the unlimited unregulated powers of prosecutors, and those who might be innocent, but plead guilty anyway.
There are three points of view. Of the most interesting seems to be that innocent accused’s may plea guilty to avoid a wrongful conviction and increased sentence risk; and that’s a good thing for society and the innocent accused.
We talk a lot about appellate issues and whether they should be raised. Of course in the military we have United States v. Grostefon. There is also talk about changing the post-trial process and possibly placing more responsibility on the trial defense counsel to initially raise appellate issues (a broadening of Palenius). So here is an interesting little case on how a federal district court resolves appellate issues under Anders.
After a jury trial, Jeffery Carter was convicted of distributing crack, see 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and the district court sentenced him to 180 months in prison. Carter filed a notice of appeal, but his appointed counsel now seeks to withdraw under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), because he cannot discern a nonfrivolous basis for appeal. Because counsel’s supporting brief is adequate, we limit our review to the potential issues identified in counsel’s brief and Carter’s Circuit Rule 51(b) response to his lawyer’s motion to withdraw. See United States v. Schuh, 289 F.3d 968, 973-74 (7th Cir. 2002).
United States v. Carter, No.08-1419, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 9939, at *1 (7th Cir. 2009).
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog