Court-Martial Trial Practice

Navy Compass reports:

Navy leaders are expressing alarm at recent statistics that show that sailors’ use of "Spice" and similar so-called designer drugs rose in the last quarter of 2010. Spice and similar products are essentially an herbal, synthetic form of marijuana, mimicking the chemical compounds found in the drug. These products are banned for Navy personnel.

The Air Force is also clarifying the confusion.

Wired.com reports:

Army commanders were warned against sending to Iraq an Army private who is suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks.

Pfc. Bradley Manning’s supervisor at Ft. Drum in New York had told his superiors that Manning had discipline problems and had thrown chairs at colleagues and shouted at higher-ranking soldiers,according to a report by McClatchy News service.

Dayton Daily News reports:

William C. Gurney, former top enlisted man at the Air Force Materiel Command headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, was sentenced at his court-martial on Friday to 20 months in military prison.

Air Force Times reports:

United States v. Luke.

ERDMANN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which BAKER, J., joined.  RYAN, J., filed a separate concurring opinion.  STUCKY, J., filed a separate opinion concurring in part and
dissenting in part.  EFFRON, C.J., filed a separate dissenting opinion.

We now review the following three issues:  whether newly discovered evidence would probably have produced a substantially more favorable result; whether the military judge erred when he held that the Government was not required to disclose Prosecution Exhibit (PE) 17 to the defense in pretrial discovery; and whether Luke’s due process rights
have been violated by the lengthy post-trial processing of his appeal.  We hold that the newly discovered evidence would probably not have produced a substantially more favorable result; if the military judge erred in holding that the Government was not required to provide the defense with PE 17 in pretrial discovery, it was harmless error; and Luke’s post-trial due process rights were not violated.  We therefore affirm the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals.  

Behind the barricades:  infiltration of Navy court-room San Diego – success, Article 39A – complete, exfiltration Navy court-room San Diego – success.

NewsFirst5.com reports:

Spc. Jordan Peters is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count of driving under the influence, one count of reckless endangerment and one count of assault. The charges stem from a vehicle crash last February that killed two soldiers.

We read and hear a lot about cyberwarfare.  Here is a link to an article that raises the question – is the use of certain cyberwarfare techniques a law of war violation?  And answers in the negative.

Could deploying Stuxnet be a war crime?

WHIO reports:

A 27-year Air Force veteran has pleaded guilty to 13 counts of sexual misconduct in his court martial at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.  Chief Master Sergeant William Gurney still faces trial on 5 other counts against him.

NY Daily News reports:

NIMJ has posted a GAO report on the “costs” of implementing DOD’s homosexual conduct policy.

But beyond that specific issues there are interesting charts which show the prevalence of administrative discharges and reasons for discharge for FY2004 through FY2009.  Look at Tables 13-15.