Articles Tagged with brady v. maryland

Thanks to CrimProfBlog here is a link to an interesting post on Grits for Breakfast, with potential for relevance in a court-martial tried under the UCMJ, with examiners from USACIL and DCFL, etc.

There was an astonishing moment yesterday at a breakout session on fingerprint examination at theTexas Forensic Science Seminar, at which Department of Public Safety fingerprint examiner Bryan Strong (who seemed like a really nice guy so I hate to pick on him) was describing how his division implemented the ACEV method of fingerprint examination in ways that may violate the state and prosecutors’ obligations under Brady v. Maryland.

blah, blah.

AFCCA issued an opinion in United States v. Rettinghouse today.  It was an Article 62, UCMJ, appeal, with some teaching points.

I note this issue arose because of – yes – trial counsel discovery violations, and then a refusal to accede to the judge’s remedy of producing witnesses for the defense.  See a post here.

I am informed that the issue of potential Brady material came up through an inadvertent disclosure at some sort of semi-official gathering at which the trial and defense counsel were present. I likened this method of disclosure as doing a reverse Ankeny.  That’s in reference to United States v. Ankeny, 28 M.J. 780 (N.M.C.M.R. 1989).  (Interestingly this case is another CAAF case cited in a federal habeas proceeding for a non-military accused.  See Nickely v. Hannigan, 869 F. Supp. 875 (D.C. Kan. 1994).    In Ankeny it was the defense who made the inadvertent disclosure to the prosecutor. 

Main Justice reports:

A high-profile appeal of an Army First Lieutenant convicted last year of killing an unarmed detainee in Iraq could turn in part on whether military prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence.

[The] case underscores how the government is being forced to explain, in the military courts as well as the civilian justice system, its compliance with Brady v. Maryland, the 1963 Supreme Court case that requires prosecutors to turn over exculpatory information to the defense.

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