Articles Posted in Uncategorized

How many times do we hear it from clients, especially appellate clients — “I got my discharge, it’s an honorable, what do I do?”

ACCA has decided that issue for Estrada, in United States v. Estrada.

Appellant argues her receipt of an administratively-issued honorable discharge prior to the convening authority’s approval of her adjudged bad-conduct discharge remits the punitive discharge and renders it a nullity. After considering the assignment of error and the applicable service regulations, we specified the following related assignment of error:

August 06, 2009

Associated Press

FORT HOOD, Texas — A Soldier who refused to deploy to Afghanistan over his beliefs that the war violates international law was sentenced here Wednesday to a month in jail.

Spc. Victor Agosto, 24, of Miami, pleaded guilty to disobeying a lawful order to report to a site that performs medical, legal and other services for troops before they deploy. The judge also reduced his rank to the Army’s lowest level, a private, which also was part of the maximum penalty he faced in his plea agreement with the military.

Here is an interesting post by Prof. Colin Miller on his EvidenceProfBlog about search incident to seizure.

Arizona v. Gant: A Windfall For The Government?

Valerie Blum, Alexandra Rudolph, From the Conference Room to the Courtroom: How a Change in Setting Affects Witness Preparation, 21 The Jury Expert, July 2009.

Court martial set Monday for autistic Marine, plea bargain likely

A court martial is set for [this past] Monday at Camp Pendleton for a 21-year-old Marine from Orange County accused of desertion, possession of child pornography and fraudulent enlistment.

The case will likely end up in a plea bargain with the Marine admitting guilt to one or more charges in exchange for being released from the brig and discharged from the Marine Corps under something less than honorable conditions.

Like civilian justice, the court martial system encourages plea bargains to avoid trials, particularly in cases where the accused has already spent significant time in custody. Pvt. Joshua Fry has been in the brig since being arrested a year ago attempting to desert.

Death and Pvt Loving, 20 Jul7 2009.

Dwight Sullivan at CAAFLog has posted this:

On 1 and 2 October, the Judge Advocate General of the Air Force will present a CLE conference at the George Mason School of Law in Arlington, Virginia.  The program is open to active duty, reserve, and retired personnel, as well as to civilian attorneys.  The program’s cost is $35, payable by 15 September.  Requests for CLE credit should be submitted by 10 August.

Contact me for CLE credit information.

Scholars & Scribes Review the Rulings: The Supreme Court’s 2008-2009 Term

July 17, 2009, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m; Location: The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Auditorium.

Directions.

The officers had PC for a vehicle search based on their surveillance, so Gant has no application. United States v. Almaraz, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54138 (S.D. N.Y. June 26, 2009).*

The stop in this case was not unreasonably extended. The officer’s questioning during the writing of the ticket led to answers that were more hesitant and gave reasonable suspicion. United States v. Suitt, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 13769 (8th Cir. June 25, 2009).*

Drug ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

I’ve argued often that the military drug policy is broken:  Alcohol the number one drug of abuse — a killer, a cause of injury, and a cause of physical damage and loss of military property — goes relatively free from regulation and consequence, military pharmacies distribute millions of prescription drugs and put the people back to work, and the one time user of marijuana goes to jail.  Now this.

U.S. military: Heavily armed and medicated: Prescription pill dependency among American troops is on the rise.

This is not news.  If the issue with drugs – legal or illegal – is safety, why do thousands of military personnel go back to work with drugs in their pocket after a visit to sick-call, etc?