There are good reasons that the military should be apolitical in public, and as political as it wants in the voting booth.
Politics Daily reports:
The Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refuses to deploy to Afghanistan because he won’t accept orders from President Obama, whom he considers unqualified to be commander in chief, military officials said Wednesday.
GiveUsLiberty blog has this piece.
Hopefully Mr. Apuzzo has a similar depth of knowledge about the UCMJ, R.C.M., and Military Rules of Evidence, to his knowledge of constitutional law. Or will he dump that on learned military counsel, that’s another part of Article 38, UCMJ.
This comment evidences a lack of understanding of chain of command issues and the Rules of who does what and how it is done.
CAAFLog has pointed to this CentralTexasNow.com report.
Bell County Jail, it’s where the man charged with the Fort Hood massacre, Nidal Hasan, is now being held. Inside the jail infirmary, under 24 hour surveillance, and his lawyer doesn’t like it.
"He is, in short, being punished. In violation I believe of article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And it’s deliberate, it’s conscious and it’s intentional," John Galligan says.
Remember that Hennis’s crimes occured before the change which permitted LWOP. So, Army Times reports:
Court recessed at 5:40 p.m. after the jury deliberated for more than two hours and also waited for the answer to three questions, including whether Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis would be eligible for parole if given a life sentence.
Judge Col. Patrick Parrish told the jury that "life means life" and reminded jurors of his instructions to impose a sentence they view as fair.
MSNBC is reporting that the Army does intend a court-martial for LTC Lakin.
How interesting, and perhaps appropriate, American Thinker reports:
Army doctor Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin yesterday met with his brigade commander, Col. Gordon R. Roberts, who proceeded to read LTC Lakin his Miranda rights
, and who informed LTC Lakin he had the "right to remain silent" because LTC Lakin is about to be charged with serious crimes. Col. Roberts was at age 19 awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the only recipient of the nation’s highest honor currently on active duty in the Army.
Examiner.com asks:
Why would a highly placed, decorated Army officer set to be promoted to colonel risk court-martial by refusing to obey orders?
Military.com reports.
The family of a former Fort Bragg soldier convicted of killing a Fayetteville woman and two small children in 1985 on Monday begged a military jury not to sentence him to death for the crimes.
The panel of 14 Army officers and enlisted personnel last week found Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis guilty of three counts of premeditated murder and is considering his sentence.
FayObserver reports:
A military jury has found Army Master Sgt. Timothy B. Hennis guilty of three specifications of pre-meditated murder.
The members of the court-martial panel returned with their verdict about 10:35 a.m. They had deliberated for two hours and 45 minutes over Wednesday and today
This is likely a duplicate post, but it’s worth it anyway. Here again is a piece from my old Crim. Law prof about forensics.
Paul C. Giannelli (Case Western Reserve University School of Law) (University of Illinois Law Review, Forthcoming, Case Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-6) has posted Daubert and Forensic Science: The Pitfalls of Law Enforcement Control of Scientific Research on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences published a landmark report on forensic science: Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward. The Report represents one of the most important developments in forensic science since the establishment of the crime laboratory in the 1920s. Within months, Justice Scalia cited the report in Commonwealth v. Melendez-Diaz, noting that “[s]erious deficiencies have been found in the forensic evidence used in criminal trials” and “[f]forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation.” After two years of studying fingerprints, handwriting, ballistics, and other common forensic techniques, the Academy concluded that “some forensic science disciplines are supported by little rigorous systematic research to validate the discipline’s basic premises and techniques.” Indeed, “only nuclear DNA analysis has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between an evidentiary sample and a specific individual or source.”
Petty Officer Keefe’s trial is scheduled to commence in Iraq on 17 April 2010.
Here is an excellent review, by Dwight “ML” Sullivan at CAAFLog on the political posturing, pseudo-lawyering, and plain gaffs about these cases.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog