Court-Martial Trial Practice BlogHere is John
C. Yoo's October 23, 2001 memo on the use of U.S. troops to conduct
military warrantless raids inside the U.S. here.
Articles Posted in Uncategorized
The value of oral argument?
[I quote] If you’re a briefwriter who, for
whatever reason, rarely gets the opportunity to present oral argument,
take heart in this quotation by a Fifth Circuit legend:
Forensically speaking.
Psychology & Crime News has an interesting post about forensic linguistics in crime detection. Using forensic linguistics in the criminal justice system, P&CN, 28 February 2009.
John Olsson of the Forensic Linguistics Institute is one of the UK’s most experienced forensic linguists, with over
300 criminal cases in his portfolio. He kindly agreed to answer a few
Book learning in ethics for counsel.
| NDAA National Prosecution Standards – 2nd Edition | |
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Download Publication This |
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It is improper for a trial counsel to interject herself into the proceedings by expressing a "personal belief or opinion as to the truth or falsity of any testimony or evidence." United States v. Horn, 9 M.J. 429, 430 (C.M.A. 1980) (quoting ABA Standards, The Prosecution Function, § 5.8(b) (1971)).
United States v. Fletcher, 62 M.J. 175, 179 (C.A.A.F. 2005).
There are also standards for the defense function.
The full ABA Criminal Justice Standards are available on-line.
Do No Wrong: Ethics for Prosecutors and Defenders
By Peter A. Joy and Kevin C. McMunigal
This book is designed to help provide guidance for resolving ethical issues such as:
-How far may the prosecution or defense go in using religion in closing argument?
-Does the defense lawyer or the client decide whether to raise an insanity defense or to present mitigation evidence?
-Is the defendant entitled to Brady material prior to entering a plea bargain?
-When may the defense introduce evidence of an alternate perpetrator or
SODDI (the "some other dude did it") defense? (Jan. 2009, 205 pages).
Death by causes.
A little off message, but I suppose this item could be squeezed into previous posts about forensics.
No longer "death by natural causes": The Associated Press writes,
"police and medical examiners who thought a man died of natural causes
Victims and witnesses.
In his first public statements since a 2005 double-murder arrest in
Iraq, now-acquitted Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez of Rensselaer County
said Tuesday he was "very, very innocent" of the slayings — yet
Civilian prosecution scorecard.
The defense wins one.
Actually, yesterday I had the pleasure of being a semi-final judge for the National Security Law Moot Court Competition hosted at George Washington Univ. Law School. 23 teams from law schools around the country competed.
The two issues before the "U.S. Supreme Court" were:
3rd Party consent to search?
United States v. Arrington, 296 Fed. Appx. 646, No. 08-4018, unpublished op. (10th Cir. 14 October 2009).
The estranged wife of the accused had no actual or apparent authority to consent to a search of the accused's hotel room. This was so even though the room was rented in the wife's mother's name and the wife paid for the room.
Because (1) she did not have mutual use of the property by virtue of
Article 2/MEJA Scorecard
The prosecution of civilians at court-martial has been an interesting development since the Article 2(a)(10), UCMJ, changes. For a little background see the earlier musings on this topic.
There has been only one private contractor ever indicted by the Department under MEJA for any sort of physically abusive or violent crime – Aaron Langston of Snowflake, Arizona, charged with assaulting a fellow contractor in Iraq with a knife. See United States v. Aaron Bridges Langston, CR-07-210-PHX (U.S. Dist. Ct., Dist. of Ariz., Indictment, Feb. 27, 2007).
Reported in, US military court-martialing civilian contractor Ali while DOJ slumbers, 19 May 2008.