Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

Sentence Relief-Worth the Read

September 26, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

This article showed that the vast majority of court-martial sentences are affirmed by AFCCA. On the rare occasion when sentence relief was granted, it was usually not based on factual sufficiency or sentence appropriateness. While there has been some fluctuation in how often AFCCA grants sentence relief, it is minimal and to some extent explained by the influence CAAF has on it.

That’s the conclusion of Maj. Kevin Gotfredson and Capt. Micah Smith in their article, Sentence Relief: At the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals During the Last 10 Years. 43(3) THE REPORTER 21 (2016). Their research was motivated by public discussion of an “epidemic” number of valid convictions being reversed because of “factual sufficiency.”

See more discussion at my website here.

Junk Science Reigns

September 25, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

so starts a post at wrongfulconvictionsblog–Junk Science Reigns ____ So Much for True Science in the Courtroom.

[W]hen the National Academy of Sciences report Forensic Science in the United States; A Path Forward was published

people thought we might see a true effort to address “junk science being used to convict innocent people.”

No surprise here

September 23, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

https://flipboard.com/@flipboard/flip.it%2F-3kqa8-some-criminal-forensics-techniques-may-/f-e42c55c244%2Fuproxx.com

Continuance denied

September 23, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Please don’t do this.

[T]he defense counsels did not respect the judge’s ruling.

[I]n an astounding show of contempt, [they] tried to force the judge to reverse himself by their unilateral withdrawal from the proceedings, on the apparent pretext that they were not prepared.

Check the post-trial victim impact statements

September 18, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The recent Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals case illustrates why defense counsel, and staff judge advocates, should exercise care with victim impact statements submitted post trial.

In United States v. Goss, the court reminds us that:

Article 60, UCMJ, was amended to include a new subsection “(d)” that authorized the submission of victim impact statements. See National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-66, § 1706, 127 Stat. 672, 960-61 (2013). However, the amended Article 60, UCMJ, does not address what may be included in a victim impact statement:

Check the warrant

September 18, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Check the warrant, or in the military the search authorization.

The recent decision of the Army Court of Criminal Appeals in a government appeal tells you why it’s important to check the warrant.

In United States v. Gurzynski, the court had before it a government appeal of a military judge’s decision to suppress evidence of a computer media search.

Why Do We Have No Clue How Often Rape Is Happening

August 24, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

My title is from the title of a piece in Mother Jones.

Federal agencies don’t have a uniform definition of sexual assault, and that has led to dramatically different estimates on the frequency of sexual violence in the United States, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Currently, four federal agencies—the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Defense—manage at least 10 efforts to collect data. The problems begin in how sexual violence is described and categorized. Agencies rarely used the same terminology to describe acts of sexual violence, the report found, and even when they did, there were differences in how they measured each act[.]

Worth the read–false complaints

August 21, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

http://www.innocenceproject.org/ginny-lefever-answers-questions-ptsd/

Worth the read–about UCMJ art. 32

August 18, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Not Your Momma’s 32: Explaining the Impetus for Change Behind Key Provisions of the Article 32 Preliminary Hearing

By Lieutenant Colonel John Loran Kiel Jr.pdf

New NMCCA cases worth the read

August 12, 2016 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

The NMCCA has issued two significant opinions this week, one of which is worth the read while the United States prosecution of Bowe Bergdahl continues.

United States v. Solis, __ M.J. ___ (N-M Ct. Crim. App. 2016). The case presents discussion of continuing issues relating to the nature of the proof and member (jury) instructions in military sexual assault cases. These types of cases, especially where alcohol is involved present complex challenges to the military defense counsel.

Article 120(b)(3)(A) of the UCMJ is unconstitutional because the language “incapable of consenting to the sexual act because she was impaired by . . . alcohol” is unconstitutionally vague.