Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
Army Times reports: A court-martialed U.S. soldier has been found not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsibility in the killing of a civilian contractor in Iraq.
The Capital reports: A Naval Academy midshipman was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a classmate and lying to investigators during a court-martial at the Washington Navy Yard Wednesday. Apparently the members deliberated for 11 hours. In a further report the sentence is a “dismissal,” and six months confinement.
The Republic reports: A court-martial was expected to wrap up Friday for a U.S. soldier accused of killing a civilian contractor in Iraq, and a military judge will then decide whether Pfc. Carl T. Stovall was mentally competent when prosecutors say he shot the Hungarian laborer to death. Here are some of the points from Friday’s hearings reported by the kdhnews.com.
On Friday, the prosecution called psychiatric witnesses to rebut defense claims that Pfc. Carl T. Stovall, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, was unable to appreciate the nature and act of his crime.
However:
During his testimony, Lyszczarz said he conducted two interviews with Stovall for four hours each and admitted there was "pressure from the top" to get the evaluation done in a timely manner.
The "complexity of the case determines how much time you should spend," Johnson testified. "I have never conducted a competency (evaluation) in just four hours."