Army Times reports:
A military officer has ordered a mental evaluation for the suspect in the November Fort Hood shootings before a key hearing next week.
Earlier this year, Army officials appointed a three-member board of military mental health professionals to determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan is competent to stand trial and his mental status the day of the Nov. 5 shooting.
The APF website is back up!
The American Patriot Foundation is pleased to announce that LTC Lakin has repositioned his forces, has retained new legal counsel, and is extremely grateful that the Foundation will be dedicating the critical next few weeks before his planned court-martial on November 3-5, to focusing entirely on public affairs, strategic communications/messaging and coalition-building and that their support will continue seamlessly as the new attorney prepares for trial. CLICK HERE FOR FULL PRESS RELEASE.
The release partly says:
United States v. Sagona, sentenced at court-martial on 8 May 2008, appeal decided 30 September 2010.
The issue was IAC of trial defense counsel who allegedly failed to investigate and advise on a potential defense of immunity. R.C.M. 704 covers the issues of immunity, tempered by case law. Basically only the GCMCA can grant immunity, but . . . . Cooke v. Orser, 12 M.J. 335 (C.M.A, 1982), is one of the more well known cases about immunity outside the R.C.M. and UCMJ requirements.
The court in Sagona had ordered a Dubay hearing. See United States v. DuBay, 37 C.M.R. 411 (C.M.A. 1986) and United States v. Ginn, 47 M.J. 236 (C.M.A. 1986).
I posted yesterday on a new Army case dealing with instructions on an affirmative defense in a court-martial under the UCMJ.
Today I’m posting on United States v. Ramon, an unpublished opinion from the NMCCA dated 28 September 2010.
In his sole assignment of error, the appellant alleges that the military judges erred in failing to instruct the members as to mistake of fact as to consent.
On 23 September 2010 USA Today published a front page piece about federal prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors are supposed to seek justice, not merely score convictions. But a USA TODAY investigation found that prosecutors repeatedly have violated that duty in courtrooms across the nation. The abuses have put innocent people in prison, set guilty people free and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees and sanctions.
USA Today has an opinion piece in today’s paper which is a rebuttal.
United States v. Stanley.
The appellant raised eight errors through counsel and an additional six in accordance with United States v. Grostefon.
One assignment of error warrants discussion, but no relief. Specifically, appellant alleges that the military judge erred by failing to properly instruct the panel regarding appellant’s right during mutual combat to exercise self-defense when the force used against him escalated. Today we find that any error by the military judge was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and affirm the findings and sentence.
Daily Commercial reports:
To police Chief Ed Nathanson, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been convicted as a sex offender or predator.
It only matters that you’ve been convicted.
NIMJ was able to send Charlie Fowler to monitor todays Article 39(a), UCMJ, session.
1. Trial is continued until 4 November 2010 from 13 October 2010. Not sure of the reason. It appears Mr. Jensen asked the judge to hold the case “in abeyance” pending resolution of an (untimely?) writ which has been filed with NMCCA. According to Charlie the defense said the reason for the potentially untimely filing was “for reasons I can’t get into right now[.]” Huuuuuuuum, this has resonance. I think I’ll try this one in a couple of weeks. (Note to DMLHS, this citation to authority has to be on the top ten this year.)
2. Unsurprisingly to those familiar with military justice the judge ruled the orders to be legal.
Disagreement arose todday among supporters of Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the Army doctor facing military court-martial for refusing orders to deploy to Afghanistan after questioning Barack Obama’s constitutional eligibility to be president.
A group of retired military officers organized as the Veterans Council and the United States Patriot Union in Sheridan, Wyo., issued a white paper calling on Lakin’s legal defense team to change strategy.
New York Times piece with a portion of video from Morlock’s confession.
Washington Post on the Ramrod Five.
A U.S. Army staff sergeant dreamed up a plan for fellow soldiers to kill three Afghan civilians this year because he was motivated by “pure hatred,” another soldier accused in the slayings has told investigators
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog