It Falls to the Officers to Make Tough Calls Over Whether Allegations Warrant a Court Martial Trial Military courts, unlike civilian courts, do not have a permanent criminal court system in place to manage the trials and convictions of service members. Rather, military courts are convened for temporary use by ranking officers when the need […]
Marine Pvt. First Class Nicholas James-McLean has been arrested in Okinawa, Japan. This arrest is following a deadly vehicle crash, in which police are stating his blood alcohol content was 3 times the legal limit. As a result, a local man was killed, and the case has been sent to the Naha prosecutor’s office. Consequently, […]
Spice is an olive-colored plant material that can be laced with cannibinoid mimicking compounds. The ingredients of Spice can be several times more potent than the drug marijuana. Spice that contains HU-210 (or another controlled substance) is considered a controlled substance; however, Spice is available without controlled substances, which means the compound is not a controlled substance. […]
This is the latest information being put out by the Air Force Drug Testing Lab regarding testing for Spice. A MESSAGE FOR THE CORPS Spice Testing Update Synthetic cannabinoids, often referred to as “spice,” are a large family of man-made synthetic compounds that are chemically produced to mimic the biological effects of the active ingredient […]
In Kentucky v. King, S. Ct. 1849 (2011), King conditionally pled guilty to numerous drug offenses after losing a motion to suppress evidence from a warrant less search. The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed, but the Supreme Court of Kentucky reversed. In a controlled buy, police officers followed the suspect into a breezeway. One officer radioed to the […]
In UNITED STATES v. SCHUBER, 70 MJ 181 (C.A.A.F. 2011) Schuber was subject to restriction not tantamount to arrest during the period following his 71 days in pretrial confinement, where accused was limited to base rather than to quarters, and even though he was required to provide weekly urine samples, he was allowed to avail […]
Briscoe v. Virginia, 130 S.Ct. 1316 (2010) deals with literal confrontation. At trial, the prosecution introduced, in accordance with Virginia law and over defense objection, two certificates of analysis. The certificates established that a substance that was confiscated from Briscoe was cocaine of a certain weight. The person who actually performed the analysis was not present at […]
United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., 2010 WL 3529247 involves the federal investigation into steroid use by Major League Baseball players as well as Bay Area Lab Cooperative (Balco). The main issues arose from multiple government requests for subpoenas and warrants in various districts within the Ninth Circuit. The government convinced magistrates they needed to […]
United States v. Cowgill, 68 M.J. 388 (C.A.A.F. 2010) deals with probable cause. The issue was whether there was sufficient probable cause for a search warrant when a portion of the search warrant affidavit contained false information. On 5 January 2007, an Air Force OSI agent contacted a local police detective to get a search […]