Court-Martial Trial Practice

On 21 September 2011, a new Army Directive went into distribution on a Self Reporting requirement.

The Army Directive – Self-Reporting by Officers and Senior Enlisted Members of Criminal Convictions is effective immediately.

Coverage appears to be limited to convictions after 1 March 2008.  For those convicted after 1 March 2008 and before the date of the memorandum, the person has 15 days from 21 September 2011 to report their conviction, after that it is 15 days after date of conviction.  They include a nolo plea, as well as, “all actions tantamount to a finding of guilty.”  They intend to capture PBJ type situations, anything along the lines of deferred judgment.  In Maryland you can get probation before judgment.  Do you probation and the conviction goes away.

United States v. Scaringello, passes Fosler muster (ahem) on a GP to breaking restriction.  Familiar rationale which basically says that no military member can fail to understand that a breaking restriction allegation relates to GoD.

I mentioned a report the other delay that United States v. Bailey has been delayed to a time uncertain.  Here the blog truthdigit as a interesting story about the case from the perspective of the victims family.

Relatives say that trying to answer the question of what, exactly, happened to McBeth has become a guessing game that gnaws at them day and night because military investigators from the Army’s Criminal Investigative Command, known as the CID, which investigates all noncombat deaths, have offered so little information. And in the course of revealing those few facts, the investigators have managed to increasingly confuse and anger the family.

Sound familiar?

KVIA.com reports:    A U.S. Army sergeant accused of the mercy killing of an Iraqi teenager faces court martial at Fort Bliss. Sims is accused of giving a fatal dose of a lethal drug to an Iraqi teenager with third-degree burns to 70 percent of his body at the 10th Combat Support Hospital in 2006 in Iraq.

One witness, Sgt Candi Piper, a fellow nurse and Sims’ former roommate, said she feared for her life because of, “All the euthanasia being performed in Iraq.”

KIVITV reports that: United States v. Holmes begins this week.  PFC Holmes’ Court Martial begins this week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Seattle. The 21year-old Boise soldier stares at life in prison. Through the ordeal, Dana Holmes has always maintainced her son’s innocence.  Several months ago, photos published in a German magazine showed Holmes and his fellow soldiers posing with the bodies of Afghan civilians. “People don’t know because the Army doesn’t want them to know that Andy was ordered by his superior officer to be in that picture,” Dana Holmes said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:  Judge (COL) Pohl has recommended a non-capital referral in United States v. Russell.

An Army sergeant accused of killing four fellow soldiers and a Navy officer at a mental health clinic on a military base in Iraq two years ago should be tried for murder but should not face the possibility of execution because he suffers from serious mental illness, a military judge recommended.

Sgt. John Russell, who opened fire at the combat stress center at Camp Liberty near Baghdad in May 2009, should be held accountable for his actions and face a court martial on the five counts of premeditated murder he faces, Col. James Pohl wrote in his recommendations issued Friday.

NMCCA has set aside a guilty plea and conviction of  misbehavior by a sentinel in United States v. Apodaca.

DID THE MILITARY JUDGE ERR BY ACCEPTING THE APPELLANT’S PLEA OF GUILTY TO MISBEHAVIOR BY A SENTINEL, WHERE THE APPELLANT WAS IMPAIRED BY A SUBSTANCE OTHER THAN ALCOHOL AT THE TIME OF THE OFFENSE?  COMPARE MANUAL FOR COURTS-MARTIAL, UNITED STATES (1969 ED.), PART IV, PARA. 35c(3) AND 38c(5), WITH MANUAL FOR COURTSMARTIAL, UNITED STATES (2008 ED.), PARA. 35c(6) AND 38c(5).

It appears the accused was under the influence of hashish, not alcohol, and he was not sleeping.  NMCCA notes that in the current Manual the President unaccountably narrowed the definition of drunk under Article 113, UCMJ.

Stars & Stripes is reporting the results of the Wickware court-martial.

Airman 1st Class Horace Wickware, convicted Monday of the abuse and murder of his 8-month old son, was found guilty Monday and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

I see that the Stars & Stripes have picked up on the former SecNav piece in the Naval Institute Proceedings., which I posted the other day in regard to the number of Navy CO’s being relieved for cause.