Court-Martial Trial Practice

Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court on Tuesday overruled its 23-year-old ruling in Michigan v. Jackson on the rights of a criminal suspect in police custody who has asked for a lawyer.  The Court did so in Montejo v. Louisiana (07-1529), in an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia.  After Scalia announced the decision, Justice John Paul Stevens spoke orally for the dissenters — a somewhat unusual gesture.  Stevens was the author of the 1986 decision that was cast aside; he was the only member of the Court then who is still sitting.

The Court had signaled in late March that it was considering overruling the Jackson decision, a decision designed to assure that the right to a lawyer is not lost during police questioning of a suspect they are holding, resulting in a confession to the crime.  The Court ruled there that, once a suspect has claimed the right to a lawyer, any later waiver of that right during questioning would be invalid, unless the suspect initiated communcation with the officers.  Among others calling for it to be overruled was U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who argued it was no longer necessary to protect the rights of those in police custody.

Courtesy of SCOTUSBlog.

This case shows one of the downsides of constantly having a cellphone at your side, pocket, or hip.

A man is arrested. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s opinion in United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218 (1973), "[a] full search of the person, his effects, and the area within his immediate reach at the time of a lawful custodial arrest may be conducted without regard to any exigency or the seriousness of the offense, and regardless of any probability that the search will yield a weapon or evidence of the crime for which the person is arrested." As part of a valid search incident to a lawful arrest, however, can an arresting officer search the contents of the arrestee’s cell phone, and if so, how thorough can that search be? Those were the questions posed to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in United States v. Wurie, 2009 WL 1176946 (D.Mass. 2009).

Colin Miller, Can You Search Me Now? 23 May 2009.

I’ve noted before that people get nervous when stopped and questioned by the police.  Being nervous is not by itself a sign that the person is lying or a criminal or doing something wrong.  Although of course NCIS/OSI/CID will often say it is so. 

As the writer notes here,

The very presence of a police officer is, in most cases, enough to unnerve the general public. Think about how you respond when a police car appears in your rearview mirror.

The National District Attorney Association has a pending Third Edition to the National Prosecution Standards pending.  You need a key to read it, gosh forbid the public might be allowed to know the standards, and perhaps comment on them.

Recruiters and fake high school graduation and home schooling certificates, and now this:

The U.S. Army is investigating soldiers who bought degrees from an illegal diploma mill that was based in Spokane and resulted in prison time for its operators.

The Army’s Human Resources Command is using a list of customers of the diploma mill operated by Dixie and Steve Randock obtained and posted online last summer by The Spokesman-Review.

Talking to a group of relaxing Soldiers former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld reiterated that you have to go to war in what you’ve got.

Military.com, 22 May 2009.

“Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage,” Rumsfeld Robert Gates said, adding that Specialist Zachary Boyd may have hit on a new kind of psychological warfare. “I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban.

Wife Doubts PTSD Bigamy Excuse, Military.com, 22 May 2009.

A Missouri woman whose husband was cleared of bigamy said she does not believe his claim that post-traumatic stress disorder made him forget his marriage.