Court-Martial Trial Practice

  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, in the New York Times, October 2, 2009

A Texas soldier has been sentenced to three years in prison and dishonorably discharged for creating a kidnapping hoax to cover his absence without leave. Pfc. James A. Gonzalez was sentenced after he pleaded guilty at a Fort Hood court-martial to charges that included desertion, making false official statements and obstruction of justice. Private Gonzalez had faced a maximum of more than 22 years’ confinement. He told a military judge that he went into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in July with no intention of returning to the Army. He said he sent a text message to a soldier demanding $100,000 in ransom, claiming to be a Mexican drug cartel member.

(Webb County Sheriff’s Office/Associated Press)

This is the headline by Chris Roberts / El Paso Times

Posted: 10/03/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO — A Fort Bliss soldier who died in Iraq in August killed himself with a gunshot to the head, according to Army investigators.

Four soldiers who have been charged with cruelty toward Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm in the days leading up to his death will not be tried for homicide, a unit spokesman said Friday in an e-mail from Iraq. And two of those soldiers face lesser punishments after the charges against them were amended, he said.

Three firms to compete for Army forensic task orders.

A lot can be said about the services provided by USACIL.  Regardless of how you view USACIL, they do not have the same kind of problems many state criminal labs do – the kind of problems identified recently in the Nat. Research Council review and report on forensic labs.

So this news is very concerning – the lowest bidder is going to get the task of analyzing forensic evidence that could put service-members in confinement or to death.  Great care needs to be taken handing over these services to a private contractor, and apparently about $145M over five years.

The Chicago Tribune has this short piece.

Ex-soldier in Iraq slaying sent to Ind. prison, by BRETT BARROUQUERE Associated Press Writer, 2 October 2009.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A former U.S. soldier sentenced to five consecutive life sentences for the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager and the shotgun slaying of three of her family members has been assigned to a federal prison in Indiana.

This is the headline of an article in the Mideast edition, Stars & Stripes, Thursday, October 1, 2009

The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has ordered a new investigation into a 2008 firefight that claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by senior commanders.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, who heads the U.S. Central Command, has appointed Richard Natonski, a Marine Corps lieutenant general, to handle the inquiry into events surrounding the battle at Wanat in Afghanistan, the command announced Wednesday. All the soldiers killed in the battle on July 13, 2008, were members of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment based in Vicenza, Italy.

Court-martial witness says Brown choked soldier who pursued him, by John Ramsey
Staff writer with Fayetteville Observer.com.

Minutes after Pfc. Luke Brown scurried under a fence into the woods, he started choking the first soldier who went in after him.

Sgt. Christopher Mignocchi, the first witness called by prosecutors in the court-martial against Justin A. Boyle, described Tuesday the events leading up to Brown’s death last summer. Boyle is one of seven soldiers accused of involuntary manslaughter for Brown’s death.