Military Justice News for Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015
Here is the Army News Service’s take on the FY2015 NDAA Mil Jus changes. It is a tad better than the Military Times coverage we posted last week. The article includes observations from Lt. Col. John...
View ArticleMilitary Justice News for Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015
Did anyone catch the PBS Newshour piece on “How military sex offenders fly under the radar after returning to civilian life“? Discusses the disconnect between sex offender registries and...
View ArticleNew Navy JAG Corps PR Instruction
Here is a link to the new Navy JAG Instruction 5803.1E, “Professional Conduct of Attorneys Practicing Under the Cognizance and Supervision of the Judge Advocate General.” The revised Navy JAG PR...
View ArticleMAJ Hasan Case Developments
Interesting developments in the Hasan case which should be proceeding to post-trial review of his death sentence. Here is a Stars & Stripes story about an upcoming hearing to address post-trial...
View ArticleReport on Gitmo Hearings in the al-Hadi Case held Jan. 28 & 28, 2015
Here (Sep. 26 Part 1), here (Sep. 26 Part 2), and here (Sep. 28) are links to reports from Monday, September 26, 205 and Wednesday September 28, 2015 at the Al Hadi Military Commission hearing. NIMJ’s...
View ArticleReport on Gitmo Hearings in 9/11 Conspirators Case held Feb. 11-13, 2015
Here (Feb. 12, 2015), here (Feb. 11, 2015), and here (Feb. 9, 2015) are links to reports from the US v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al. (9/11 conspirators) Military Commission hearing. NIMJ’s volunteer...
View ArticleJudicial Proceedings Panel Meeting on Mar. 13, 2015
Here is the FedReg announcement for the latest JPP meeting on Mar. 13, 2015 from 9 am to 5 pm. The focus of this meeting is to consider “compensation and restitution for victims of offenses under the...
View ArticleJudge Pohl Orders Abatement of KSM/9-11 Conspirators Commission hearings for...
More to follow, here is the order. Prior coverage from the WSJ here.
View ArticleCMCR Throws Out Hicks Conviction
Here is a link (courtesy of Lawfare) to the Hicks case decision from U.S. Court of Military Commissions Review (USCMCR) . The Feb. 18, 2015 decision (I am a little tardy), after finding that Hicks...
View ArticleJudge Pohl and KSM Won’t be Roomies
Thanks to a Commenter, we now have the rescission of the order (here) that MC judges move to Gitmo until the cases are completed.
View ArticleMilitary Justice News for Wednesday, April 22, 2015
A Joint Base Lewis-McCord soldier testified in his court-martial yesterday that he killed a fellow soldier in self-defense in the nearby town of Lakewood. Private Jeremiah Hill testified that he...
View ArticleMilitary Justice News for Thursday, April 23, 2015
Sen. Clair McCaskill added and amendment to the long stalled human trafficking bill that requires. Coverage here (St. Louis Post Dispatch). The predecessor of the amendment, the Military Sex Offender...
View ArticleMarine Corps Judge Advocate Promotions
Congrats to our own Zee, who’s been selected for O-4 in the Marine Corps Reserve!
View ArticlePassing of Former Navy Judge Advocate General John S. Jenkins
We learned that NIMJ founder and former Navy Judge Advocate General RADM (ret.) John Smith Jenkins, JAGC, USN, has passed away. In addition to serving as the Navy JAG from 1980-82 he was a member of...
View ArticleDoD SAPR Feedback to the Force [Updated]
In a December 3, 2014 memo, here, SecDef required the service secretaries to provide the findings of the 2014 “Department of Defense Report to the President of the United States on Sexual Assault...
View ArticleChanges in JAGC Career Progression?
The new head of DoD Personnel thinks so. In an article, here (Military Times), yesterday, Brad Carson, the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, is quoted as questioning up or...
View ArticleFederal Rules Must Be Changed, District Courts Too Lenient in Military Rape...
Here is a link to a story out of the NJ National Guard where a federal jury acquitted a soldier in a case involving the alleged rape of another soldier. I think the words of a senior judge advocate...
View ArticleCode Committee Meeting Mar. 1, 2016
From the Code Committee, here: This year’s meeting will be held at the Courthouse of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 450 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20442-0001, at 10:00 a.m....
View Article[POSTPONED] Panel Discussion of DoD’s Proposed Military Justice Legislation
[Update: this event has been postponed due to weather issues. We will update the post and provide a link to the new flyer when it is available] On January 28, 2016, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, there will...
View ArticleComments Policy
In light of some comments in the Bergdahl discussion thread that were brought to our attention, which have now been removed, we’d like to remind everyone of the comments policy on this little blog,...
View ArticleMilitary Justice News for March 24, 2016
The court martial of Army Master Sgt Omar Velez Pagan began in Fayetteville, NC reprots the Fayetteville Observer here. The Master Sgt. is accused of murderimg his mistress while assigned as a...
View ArticleMilitary Justice News for March 24, 2016
Thhe court martial of Army Master Sgt Omar Velez Pagan began in Fayetteville, NC reprots the Fayetteville Observer here. The Master Sgt. is accused of murderimg his mistress while assigned as a...
View ArticleAkbar v. United States Petition for Certiorari
Love the argument in the Akbar v. United States, No. 15-1257, Petition for Certiorari (here). Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002) held that aggravating factors in capital cases constitute elements of...
View ArticleWas DoD Data Used to Thwart MilJus System Changes Skewed?
So says Protect Our Defenders according to AP (story here). And while the folks at Protect Our Defenders apparently weren’t able to communicate how the MilJus system works to AP, see if you can spot...
View ArticleFY2015 Military Sexual Assault Report Coverage – A Continued Assault on...
So here is the headline and first paragraph of Military Times’ coverage of the latest DoD report on sexual assault in the military: Military sex assault: Just 4 percent of complaints result in...
View ArticleNIMJ Amicus in Support of Certiorari in Akbar v. US
Here is the NIMJ amicus brief in support of the Petition for Certiorari in Akbar v. United States, No. 15-1257. The general theme of the brief is that “in contrast to [] civilian criminal convictions,...
View ArticlePFC Manning Files Appeal at ACCA
Coverage abounds of the recently filed appeal of PFC manning at the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, here (AP via Army Times), here (ABC News), here (AP via Stars&Stripes), and here (Wired)–yes,...
View ArticleAmici Support Akbar v. US SCOTUS Cert. Petition
The Supreme Court received two additional briefs in support of the petition for certiorari in Akbar v. United States, No. 15-1257 (Akbar CAAFlog case page). The first from the National Association of...
View ArticleNational Law Journal Coverage of the Akbar Cert. petition
Here (subscription req’d) is a link to Marcia Coyle’s piece in the National Law Journal Supreme Court Brief discussing the Akbar cert. petition and amicus brief from NIMJ, featuring quotes from NIMJ’s...
View ArticleTimely Navy JAG Event on Maritime Security and Freedom of Navigation
Here is a link to an ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security announcement about a timely topic in light of the growing dispute between the US and China over freedom of navigation in the...
View ArticleDoD IG Stands Up Sexual Assault Reprisal Unit
After earlier this year substantiating its first case of reprisal against a sexual assault victim (see army Times here), various outlets reporting on the creation within the DoD IG’s Office of a sexual...
View ArticleFirst Presidential “Debate” Features MilJus – A Glaring Factual Inaccuracy...
[First I know it wasn’t a debate, so don’t hit send on that hate mail you are drafting] From the Republican Presidential candidate, per NPR (here): The Pentagon has to set up a “court system within the...
View ArticleSCOTUS Denies Certiorari in Akbar
Alas, the Golden CAAF II remains without a new home as the Supreme Court denied what was the best prospect of a certiorari grant in a Mil Jus case in some time. Yesterday’s orders list (here) denied...
View ArticleCongrats to CDR Fulton . . . err, His Honor
Not sure how I missed this, but former CAAFlog contributor Commander Marcus Fulton is now a member of the Panel 3 of the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. Congratulations! There is hope for...
View ArticleManning Sentence Commuted by POTUS
Here is the NYT article on the commutation of Private Manning’s sentence that results in a release date in May of 2017 rather than finishing the remaining 27 or so years and being released in...
View ArticleMore MilJus Commutations – Loving Receives LWOP
After now bouncing around the Mil Jus system for nearly 30 years, the sentence of Private Dwight Loving was today commuted to life without the possibility of parole. See Military Times coverage here....
View ArticleSGT Bergdahl Files UCI Motion After Inauguration
Here is a link to The Hill’s coverage of SGT Bowe Bergdahl’s motion to dismiss the charges against him based on Unlawful Command Influence (UCI). The motion argues, according to the article, that...
View ArticlePOTUS Weighs in on Manning Case While Appeal is Still Pending
Here is CNN coverage of POTUS’s early morning tweet paraphrasing Fox News coverage of a Private Manning article, here, that was critical of President Obama for being insufficiently progressive. The...
View ArticlePOTUS Defers to SecDef on Definition of Torture
A variety of outlets (here (FoxNews) and here (The Hill)) report on the POTUS’s decision to defer to SecDef Mattis on whether the US will use interrogation methods that some have argued constituted...
View ArticleAirman Wilson Receives LWOP for Murder
From the Macon Telegraph: A Robins Air Force Base airman was sentenced to life Wednesday for the premeditated murder of his pregnant fiancee and her unborn daughter. Charles Amos Wilson III, 30, a...
View ArticleBergdahl Judge Denies Unlawful Command Influence Motion Based on POTUS...
Here is CNN’s coverage of the military judge’s denial of SGT Bergdahl’s motion to dismiss the charges against him based on President Ttump’s campaign trail comments calling Bergdahl a “traitor” and...
View ArticleJudicial Proceedings Panel Report Released
While not shocking in light of prior studies of the MilJus system, if the Judicial Proceedings Panel‘s April 2017 report recommendations are followed, the services will need to make an investment of...
View ArticleLCDR Lin Reaches Plea Deal in Former Espionage Court-Martial
Here is Navy Times coverage of LCDR Lin’s plea deal. In what was an espionage case — it now becomes something much less, per Navy Times: The Navy has dropped espionage charges against Lt. Cmdr. Edward...
View ArticleMotions Continue in the Bergdahl Court-Martial
Here is the Fayetteville Observer’s coverage of today’s scheduled hearing on motions in the SGT Bowe Bergdahl case. In today’s motions “prosecutors in April asked for the declassification of seven...
View ArticleMore on Unlawful Command Influence Affidavit at CAAF from Retired Navy One-Star
Here is Navy Times coverage of the affidavit submitted by retired Rear Admiral Patrick J. Lorg in the sexual assault case of Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Keith Barry. Here is Zach’s...
View ArticleFourth Circuit’s Two Former Judge Advocates in Majority on Controversial...
Judge Diaz and Judge Wynn were in the majority in Int’l Rfugee Assistance v. Trump. Opinion here.
View ArticleJAGC Tourism – Ft. Campbell
Happened upon this while visiting Clarksville, Tenn. A thank you to the prosecution shop Sergeant for offering to show us the courtroom. But we didn’t take her up on it because US v. Morales was going...
View ArticleHarvard Adds Fellow with MilJus Experience
So Chelsea (former Bradley) Manning has a fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. Release here. Prompting the resignation of at least one other fellow, here. H/t JK
View ArticleHarvard Subtracts Fellow with MilJus Experience
Here is a link to Army Times coverage of the Harvard Kennedy School disinviting Chelsea Manning from the list of 2018 Fellows after a severe case of public backlash. Here is the school’s statement,...
View ArticleFormer FITZGERALD CO Lays Down an Unlawful Command Influence Broadside in...
Defense counsel for CDR Bryce Benson, the former USS Fitzgerald CO, filed a wide ranging motion to dismiss claiming unlawful command influence at the highest levels of the Navy (Navy Times coverage...
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