A little off topic, but I thought sufficiently interesting for a military justice audience.
Martha Neil, DOJ Files USERRA Suit Against Indiana Law Firm, ABA Journal Law News Now, 16 March 2009.
Referenced is another: Matthew Whittle, lawsuit involving braswell and former magistrate settled, Goldsboro News-Argus (on-line), 8 March 2009).
Yes, this is a story of some naval police who sued the DON for using real live "pepper" spray to have realistic training. It's possible these are civilian police employed by DON.
Here are several articles of some interest.
Roger P. Alford, International or Foreign Law as an Interpretive Aid in Supreme Court Jurisprudence, 9(3) Engage 79 (October 2008).
Tom Gede, Kent Scheidegger, Fon Rychlak, The Supreme Court's 21st Century Trajectory in Criminal Cases, 9(3) Engage 44 (October 2008).
It app-ears that ear print comparisons have been advocated as a method of identifying a perpetrator. But, it app-ears that the British courts are giving the so-called expert an earful of doubt.
Andre A. Moenssens, Another Ear Print Conviction Reversed! (Prof. Moenssens is one of several law professors to follow on issues of forensics and evidence. A lot more can be found at Forensic-Evidence.com.
Credibility is always an issue.
citizen intended to assist law enforcement agents or instead acted to
further his own purposes; and whether the citizen acted at the
Here, the district court did not err in ruling that the ten images depicting child pornography were fairly attributable to Knowles. Forensic testimony indicated that the ten images at issue were kept in the same "AOL Downloads" folder found on Knowles' laptop as a photo depicting "Sassy13 Sarah" sent to Knowles by FBI Special Agent Brillhart, and that storing images in that folder involved a series of interactive steps requiring the user's management (viz., clicking on "save" to download an image attached to an email into the designated folder). This process contrasted with the routine automatic downloading and temporary "caching" of files on the laptop's hard drive by web browser software without any user participation or choice. (emphasis added.)
Nor did the district court err in ruling that the ten images were relevant to the issue of Knowles' intent, in particular his predisposition for sex with underage girls. The fact that Knowles had saved images of child pornography to his "AOL Downloads" folder tended to show such predisposition, in turn supporting an inference that his intent was to travel to Portland [*4] to attempt to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. As to Knowles' predisposition, the probative value of these ten images outweighed their potential prejudicial effect, and the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting them.
United States v. Smither, No. 09-3-KSF, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17231 (E.D. Ky. March 6, 2009), is worth the read for a refresher on challenging search warrants because the information is stale. Those of us who have tried are well aware that it's almost impossible to have a child pornography warrant suppressed for staleness. The author at fourthamendment.com comments.
it far better. To my knowledge no child porn defendant has won a
Kevin Maurer, Wounded soldier's care probed, FayObserver.com, 11 March 2009.
If this report is believed, injured and wounded soldiers in medical holding company's are disciplined at a higher rate than line company's.
Apparently, it is not an excuse for a failure to go that your prescribed medication for you injury or illness causes you to be late for formation. Seems to me there's at least the possibility of a defense based on impossibility or something similar.
Background on the DP (courtesy of CAAFLog):
been 15 known military death sentences. Two were set aside in the
Here is one for the what was he thinking category. Eugene Volokh, Lawyer Disbarred for Switching Vote as a Juror Solely in Order To Return To His Busy Law Practice, 11 March 2009.
And what else was he thinking?
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog