Here is a link to the new Military Commissions website.

The Capital reports:  A midshipman accused of raping a classmate in her Bancroft Hall dorm room testified Tuesday that the sex was consensual and that he initially lied to investigators because he feared being kicked out of the Naval Academy.

Amanda Stairett of kcentv.com reports that:  COL David M. Benedek, a forensic psychiatrist, was the only defense witness to testify Tuesday [in the Stovall court-martial].

I have updated the list to indicate whether or not the appellant got a benefit on sentence as a result of the Fosler issue.

Military.com reports that:

Gitmo Trials to get Limited Broadcast to USThe Obama administration’s handpicked choice to run prosecutions at the Guantanamo war crimes court is pledging a new era of transparency from the remote base, complete with near simultaneous transmissions of the proceedings to victims and reporters on U.S. soil.

Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins made the disclosure in a profile published Sunday in the Weekly Standard that likened the West Point, Oxford and Harvard Law graduate to a James Bond-style problem solver. It also cast Martins as “The Rebrander” of the at-times denounced military commissions system, which Barack Obama scorned as a candidate and senator then reformed with Congress as president.

kcentv.com reports that:  The court-martial for PFC Carl T. Stovall III began this morning on post with him pleading not guilty in a March 26, 2009, shooting that left a Hungarian man dead.

The Capital (HometownAnnapolis.com) reports:  Blue pants were a central piece of evidence Monday in the court-martial of a Naval Academy midshipman accused of raping a female classmate at the academy last year.

Colorado Springs Gazette reports that:  A former Fort Carson soldier convicted for his part in the 2007 shooting death of another soldier was denied parole on Thursday, according to the slain man’s mother.

postcrescent.com reports that:  U.S. Army military police have launched an investigation into the death of Staff Sgt. Garrick L. Eppinger Jr., his sisters told The Post-Crescent on Thursday. . . . [H]e was found dead Saturday at Bagram Airbase in eastern Afghanistan.

(h/t Outside the Wire)

CAAF remanded three more cases in light of Blazier and Sweeney.  Interestingly the CAAF had this “addition.”

1 Nothing in this order is intended to limit the scope of the Court of Criminal Appeals’ review on remand, including, but not limited to, consideration of the issue raised in Judge Stucky’s separate opinion.

STUCKY, Judge (concurring in the result):

SCOTUSBlog notes the following criminal law cases to be argued at the Supreme Court on 4 October

Howes v. Fields,  "Custody" under Miranda.

Issue: Whether this Court’s clearly established precedent under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 holds that a prisoner is always "in custody" for purposes of Miranda any time that prisoner is isolated from the general prison population and questioned about conduct occurring outside the prison regardless of the surrounding circumstances.

Well, is the 9th Circuit due for another pounding for their allegedly errant ways?  Courtesy of SCOTUSBlog here are two opportunities.

Title: Cavazos v. Smith
Docket: 10-1115
Issue(s): Did the Ninth Circuit exceed its authority under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) by granting relief for insufficient evidence based on its acceptance of the cause-of-death testimony of defense experts over the contrary opinion testimony of prosecution experts?

Certiorari stage documents:

The published opinion leads off with note that this is the second time they’d heard the case, the first before the Supremes remanded.  This is a shaken baby prosecution, and so should be of interest to military practitioners. 

Every now and again I post a post-service case relating to a court-martial.  Here is Pacheco v. Commandant USDB.  Note this case is in the ‘notorious,’ to military prisoners, 10th Circuit.  There are no military appellate decisions to link to:  ACCA gave its standard merits denial and CAAF denied.

This matter comes before the court on a petition for habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. Petitioner, a prisoner at the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, seeks habeas corpus relief on the ground that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during court-martial proceedings.

From time to time a military appellant will raise an issue at CAAF that the CCA did not properly consider their claims of error, as evidenced by the summary merits affirmance.  CAAF has not granted on such a claim.  Here is the Fed. Dist. Ct. for Kansas on the one line denials.

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