Jul 23, 2011 In United States v. Kirk, No. Misc. 20100443 (A. Ct. Crim. App. July 28, 2010) (unpublished) the Government initially filed an Article 62 appeal, challenging the military judge’s decision to suppress the accused’s statements based on a violation of Article 31(b), UCMJ. The ACCA reversed the military judge’s ruling on the suppression […]
United States v. Martinez, 69 M.J. ____ (A. Ct. Crim. App. Oct. 7, 2010) deals with improper conduct of the judge with other judge. The accused in this case was initially arraigned by a military judge referred to as “supervisory judge” the opinion. Following arraignment, the accused agreed to plead guilty pursuant to an approved […]
Jul 21, 2011 R.C.M. 902(a) provides “a military judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which that military judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” R.C.M. 902(e) allows parties to waive any ground for challenge predicated on this subsection. By contrast, R.C.M. 902(b) provides five non-waivable (and rare) grounds for challenge. The Discussion to R.C.M. […]
In United States v. Smith, 69 M.J. ____ (A. Ct. Crim. App. Aug. 10, 2010) the Acting Commander, Fort Lewis, referred charges against the accused to court-martial. On M-15 appeal, the defense argued the commander was not designated as a court-martial convening authority by the Secretary of the Army (SECARMY) and did not have jurisdiction […]
Jul 19, 2011 In United States v. Kuhn, ACM 37357 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. Mar. 8, 2010), review denied, 69 M.J. 170 (C.A.A.F. 2010) the accused pled guilty to five specifications of wrongful use of cocaine. Per his pretrial agreement, accused agreed to waive all waivable motions. On appeal, accused asserted ineffective assistance of counsel, […]
In United States v. Craven, 69 M.J. 513 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. 2010), review denied, 69 M.J. 209 (C.A.A.F. 2010) the accused pled guilty pursuant to a pretrial agreement that included this quantum: “The approved sentence will not exceed confinement in excess of thirty-six months (36).” The convening authority approved an adjudged dishonorable discharge, 28 months of […]
United States v. Stefan, No. 20081097 (A. Ct. Crim. App. Jan. 29, 2010) (summary disposition) (unpublished), review granted, 69 M.J. 171 (C.A.A.F. 2010) deals with the issue of disqualification of staff judge advocate. An Army judge advocate served in several capacities in court-martial processing. First, she signed the referral of charges and additional charges as “Chief, […]
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 […]
Jun 7, 2011 In United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., 2010 WL 3529247 the issue was whether the government abused its power in the request and execution of warrants and subpoenas. This case began with a Ninth Circuit panel opinion, then an enbanc opinion issued on August 26, 2009. See United States v. Comprehensive Data Testing, 579 […]