Trial is scheduled to begin 8 December 2010 at Fort Bragg.
The Judge has decisions pending on a suppression motion and a motion to dismiss an attempted rape charge for failure to state an offense.
As FayObserver ‘observes:’
Military.com reports:
The soldier who tried to blow the whistle on an alleged plot to kill Afghan civilians for sport has been put in solitary confinement in a windowless cell for 23 hours a day, his family said.
The father of Spc. Adam Winfield is objecting to the conditions at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, and wants the soldier moved to a different facility.
Some years ago LCDR Walter Fitzpatrick was prosecuted and convicted at court-martial and later retired. After that he began a website called JAGHunter. Initially he used the site to lambast any of the Navy JAG’s involved in his case along with his commanders. Over the years there have been other oddities from the retired LCDR. He became involved in the birther movement. The retired LCDR has been vocal in his support of LTC Lakin. And more recently he was arrested and being prosecuted because he wanted to arrest some public officials for actions he didn’t like.
Fitzpatrick was arrested in April after he interrupted a closed door grand jury hearing in an attempt to make a citizens arrest of jury foreman Gary Pettway. Fitzpatrick felt Pettway and the jury was illegally blocking his attempts to indict President Obama.
Fitzpatrick has said he believes Obama is not an American citizen and is serving illegally as president.
NWA Online reports that:
A Little Rock Air Force Base airman lost his stripes Friday and was ordered to jail for a month after being found guilty of assault for whipping his stepdaughter with a belt and an extension cord, but the military court stopped short of kicking him out of the service.
KWCH News 12 reports:
And here is an Air Force Times report:
When Rohan Coombs joined the Marine Corps, he never thought one day he would be locked up in an immigration detention center and facing deportation from the country he had vowed to defend. . . .
The estimates are of about 8000 non-U.S. citizens enlisting to serve in the U.S. armed forces in any given year.
United States v. Pippins, is a reminder that when a person possesses drug for a persons own use and/or distribution, the possession is an LIO of the use or the distribution.
A review of multiplicity in this case centers on whether the appellant’s possession of BZP is in the same act or course of conduct with her use and distribution of BZP. See United States v. Paxton, 64 M.J. 484, 490 (C.A.A.F. 2007); United States v. Teters, 37 M.J. 370, 373 (C.M.A. 1993). Possession is a lesser included offense of both use and, under the facts of this case, distribution. See MANUAL FOR COURTS-MARTIAL, UNITED STATES (2008 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 37d. See also United States v. Zubko, 18 M.J. 378, 385-86 (C.A.A.F. 1984).
Thus, any time an accused is charged with both use and possession or distribution and possession of the same amount, there should be a dismissal for multiplicity.
Here is a link to the 29 September 2010, JAGINST 5813.1B, Standardization of General Courts-Martial and Special Courts-Martial Verbatim and Summarized Records of Trial.
Thanks to LawProfsBlog here is a link to an interesting article:
Regulating the Plea-Bargaining Market: From Caveat Emptor to Consumer Protection
Stephanos Bibas, University of Pennsylvania Law School, U of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 10-33, California Law Review, Vol. 99, Forthcoming
For all of the criticisms of military justice and the UCMJ, you don’t have this at court-martial as tipped by Sentencing Law & Policy blog.
Cargill, a federal public defender, was perturbed by a rarely discussed U.S. court rule that critics say conflicts with the presumption of judicial openness. In the Western District of Virginia, as in many other U.S. court districts, a probation officer makes a secret sentencing recommendation to the judge. Cargill accidentally saw the probation officer’s recommendation for his client. The report was "misleading and inaccurate," Cargill wrote in a protest letter. (Emphasis added.)
Here is a link to the full article in the Roanoke (VA) Times.
Leaks from Members (or sometimes military judges) occasionally give rise to appellate litigation.
Here is an interesting piece on federal evidence review:
Motion for new trial on criminal extortion and bribery case denied, despite juror’s statement to newspaper after the verdict that because the defendants did not testify, the juror reasoned that "[if] they were innocent, they would have testified.’”; since members of the jury did not learn of the defendant’s failure to testify through improper channels, the evidence of their discussions was not admissible under FRE 606(b) as it was not an extrinsic influence, inUnited States v. Kelley, 461 F.3d 817 (6th Cir. Aug. 31, 2006) (Nos. 05-1361, 05-1435)
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
