parole Tag Archives — Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

Collateral consequences

July 27, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Thanks (again) to CAAFLog for finding a case relating to collateral consequences — Moutrie v. Secretary of the Army, __ F. Supp. 2d __, No. CV 09-4456-SVC (RC) (C.D. Cal. July 7, 2010).

Up until, oh I don’t remember the date now, but quite a number of years ago, a military prisoner who reached his minimum release date (MRD) was released without any restrictions on liberty post release. That lead to a bit of gamesmanship before the clemency and parole boards. If a prisoner was up for parole consideration and he had less than a year to go for his MRD the prisoner would usually waive parole consideration. They were willing to serve the months rather than be paroled. That was because a paroled prisoner would waive all of their good time. But more importantly be subject to many onerous conditions of parole.

(Note to trial practitioners. Before advising your client about post-trial matters I would recommend you consult and you review with the client DODI 1325.7. This regulation has a number of important rules you can educate your client about (including, yes, sex offenders). Although it does not contain Rule No. 1 for obtaining parole: that you “have taken responsibility for your confining offenses.” Words to that effect must show up somewhere in confinement evaluations and recommendations. That works pretty well in a GP case. If you are a defense counsel and have NG but found guilty case give me a call, all is not lost. [Having sat as a voting member of the Navy C&PB, albeit some years ago, I’d venture that no other rule is as important to parole than Rule No. 1. You may have good scores on the points based classification system and good reports and no discipline reports, but . . . you clearly haven’t learned any lessons.] Anyway. Upon entry to confinement the facility calculates the full term date (FTD), that’s day for day service of sentence, minus credit for pretrial confinement or an Article 13, UCMJ, violation, or effect of a PTA. Then they calculate automatic good time credit based on the length of approved sentence, which becomes the minimum release date (MRD). Absent loss of good-time or clemency or parole that’s when the prisoner can normally expect to be released.)

Post-post-trial

January 7, 2010 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Clemency & Parole after a lengthy court-martial sentence can be hard to get. For Navy and Marine Corps cases parole requires a parole plan and a place to live.

The Camp Pendleton-based squad leader is serving an 11-year sentence for killing an unarmed Iraqi civilian. But the sheriff in his hometown in Massachusetts wants to hire him. Reporting from San Diego – A Marine from Camp Pendleton, convicted of murdering an unarmed Iraqi civilian, has a job waiting with the sheriff’s department in his hometown in Massachusetts once he is released, a Navy parole board was told Wednesday.

LA Times reports.

Update on Mandatory Supervised Release

December 6, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Thanks to CAAFLog there is news about the military mandatory release program imposed on those convicted and sentenced at court-martial.

Judge Rogers of the 10th Circuit has found the program to be legal and constitutional, in Huschak v. Gray, 642 F. Supp. 2d 1268 (D. Kan. 2009). (United States v. Huschak, ACM 35382 (A. F. Ct. Crim. App. 28 June 2004) aff’d 61 M.J. 154 (C.A.A.F. 2005). He was sentenced to 10 years of confinement, and the CA reduced confinement to 8 years. As Judge Rogers notes, no issues relating to the MSRP were raised at trial or on appeal. The case preceded United States v. Pena.

In the old days the military prisoner who reached the MRD would be released from confinement and released. There was no consequence to their current sentence if they got in more trouble, also the government couldn’t impose conditions on that release such as attending sex offender treatment programs. That meant that as they got closer to parole eligibility the prisoner started to think about gaming the system. At the time a paroled prisoner would be on the military leash up until their FTD, they could have parole revoked, and the could be back serving every day of the adjudged sentence. Typically that meant that a prisoner offered parole during their last year up to MRD gamed the system and refused parole. They’d have to serve up to their MRD for several more months, but it was better than being on the government leash for several more years through the parole system.