Someone has made a valid request of Congress, and they have agreed:
The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday suspended its investigation of the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, until the Department of Defense had finished its investigation.
DoD requested that Congress wait until its review had been complete before calling DoD witnesses to testify in public hearings, according to a release from committee chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo.
Before we place too much faith in police sponsored and monitored laboratories, here is a word of caution.
The New York State Police’s supervision of a crime laboratory was so poor that it overlooked evidence of pervasively shoddy forensics work, allowing an analyst to go undetected for 15 years as he falsified test results and compromised nearly one-third of his 322 cases, an investigation by the state’s inspector general has found.
A young Coast Guard petty officer faced the military courtroom with tears in her eyes Wednesday and told the two teams of lawyers the intimate, personal details of her sex life with her former lover, who was sitting across the room at the defense table.
The woman, who is the second lover to have taken the stand so far in the proceeding, told the court the captain had been her best friend up until the abrupt ending to the affair.
Anchorage Daily News reports.
Rumor has it that there are now 12 trial counsel assigned to the prosecution of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, at least one of whom has military death penalty litigation experience.
The defense remains at three with Mr. Galligan and two military defense counsel, none of whom have death penalty experience under the UCMJ.
The Army psychiatrist charged with fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood last month has been moved from a hospital intensive care unit to a private room, his attorney said Wednesday. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan remains under guard at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and is rehabilitating from wounds that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
An Army captain from Evergreen, accused of ordering Iraqi officers to kill two Iraqi civilians, will find out in the next few weeks if his case will go before a court martial.
The United States Military "preferred" one count of reckless endangerment and two counts of premeditated murder against Capt. Carl Bjork on Nov. 3.
Reports 9NEWS.com. An Article 32, UCMJ, investigation has yet to be ordered, so no court-martial for a while.
A Palm Springs man who surprised former classmates at his high school reunion in Martinez when he showed up in a Marine Corps uniform has pleaded guilty to wearing military medals that he never earned.
He will face as much as a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine when he is sentenced March 1. He remains free on $10,000 bond.
The SFGate reports.
Ohio holds today (4-3) that a cell phone search requires a warrant without exigent circumstances. Therefore, it was not subject to a search incident. Today’s cell phones are analogous to a computer. State v. Smith, 2009 Ohio 6426 (December 15, 2009).
FourthAmendment blog reports. Seems there ought to be similar results for a military search and that the fruits of a warrantless search should similarly be excluded at court-martial.
A Fort Benning soldier has been sentenced to life in a military prison for the slaying of an Army trainee who was repeatedly stabbed with a knife in his barracks last year.
Reports WDBJ7.com.
A hearing will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday for Capt. Herbert “Mark” Hamilton III, who was charged Nov. 3 with multiple offenses, including indecent acts, sodomy, fraud and conduct unbecoming an officer.
The downloading of CP?
This local story from Virginia, which is headlined "Navy officer gets 40 months for child porn," reflects recent debates over both the federal child porn sentencing guidelines and showing leniency for those who served our country in the military. Here are the details:
A Navy lieutenant commander who served in Iraq with an elite Riverine unit was sentenced today to 40 months in prison after admitting he downloaded child pornography. John J. Hall blamed his actions in part on post traumatic stress disorder, a claim that the judge in the case took into account in granting leniency.
I’ve commented before about The Conscience of a Lawyer, the story of a how could you represent a really bad person. Here is an excellent article about Colonel Galligan who is representing Major Nidal Milak Hasan for the shootings at Fort Hood.
The Dallas News.com
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog