Reuters reports:
Lawyers for one of five U.S. soldiers accused of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians for sport petitioned a military appeals court on Thursday to open grisly photographic evidence in the case to public scrutiny.
The writ also sought to have the court in Arlington, Virginia, halt the so-called Article 32 investigative proceedings against the soldier, Private First Class Andrew Holmes, until the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals had ruled on the defense petition.
Norbrook has a good piece here on Blue Wave News about Conscience and Duty. Worth a read.
And TPMMuckraker has this piece.
In the lead-up to the court martial, the American Patriot Foundation, the group that set up his legal defense fund, launched "Terry Lakin Action Week," and invoked Nuremberg to argue Lakin’s case[.]
The U. S. Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari today in United States v. Clayton.
Sorry Bill.
The APF has launched it’s new campaign – Terry Lakin Action Week — to persuade members of Congress to get involved in establishing a new concept, that military officers may refuse duty at their whim.
With Congress back for the "lame duck" session we are urging Terry’s advocates to make calls to Capitol Hill- and to newly elected Members of Congress- during the week of Nov 15-19 to urge them to speak up for LTC Lakin and to provide feedback on the response to those calls. Remember that the U.S. Congress works for you- and that Members have a certain obligation to respond to constituent inquiries- but please be polite and respectful in advancing your point of view.
This is a reminder that LTC Lakin has not yet made some statement refuting his belief about the President’s eligibility or the birther movement. That would not be completely expected at this point and I would anticipate his counsel have told him not to make any more public statements.
KPLU News reports.
Key pieces of evidence were lost or never collected in the case of five Washington-based soldiers charged with murdering Afghan civilians. That emerged Tuesday in an evidentiary hearing against the alleged ringleader – Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs.
Courtesy of Army Times, here is a link to, “Fort Hood Army Internal Review Team: Final Report.”
Thanks to a jab from RealityCheck. Let’s parse the current defense information release from LTC Lakin’s defense counsel.
His previous civilian attorney complicated his case and is partially responsible for two of these charges by advising LTC Lakin to refuse to report to his superior officer.
I posted a while back about the TMLUTB defense. I think the two charges referred to above are the harder on which to establish a TMLUTB defense. I think it would be harder to convince members that the order to report needed the advice of counsel. But . . . .
Thanks to Sentencing Law & Policy here is a paper that raises some thoughts on IAC for pretrial advice to clients. As we know we won’t get anything solid on that from CAAF a la immigration because Denedo’s case is over. But, . . . .
Post Padilla: Padilla’s Puzzles for Review in State and Federal Courts
Vanderbilt Law Research Paper Series
Vanderbilt University Law School
Nancy J. King
Vanderbilt Law School
Gray Proctor
affiliation not provided to SSRN
Federal Sentencing Reporter, Volume 23, Issue 3 (Feb 2011)
Misc. No. 11-8009/MC. Frank D. WUTERICH, Appellant v. David L. Jones, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Marine Corps, in his capacity as Military Judge, and United States, Appellees. CCA 200800183. Notice is hereby given that a writ-appeal petition for review of the decision of the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals on application for extraordinary relief was filed under Rule 27(b) on this date.
Lexington Herald-Leader reports:
Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs’ big talk about killing Afghan civilians and getting away with it made him stand out when he joined a new platoon at an Army base in southern Afghanistan a year ago, according to written statements from his comrades.
Some of his Stryker platoon mates from Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash., told investigators they didn’t know what to make of him. They thought he must be kidding.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog