Gunmen attack Fort Hood, Texas

[AdamG]

There were indications Wednesday morning that Maj. Nidal Hasan’s lawyer could withdraw from his position as lead defense counsel for the man accused of murdering 13 people on Ft. Hood at a pending arraignment hearing.

http://www.kwtx.com/news/headlines/1...8.html?ref=618

[jmm99]

In a fractured version of the Dirty Dozen script, the military judge sought to emulate Robert Ryan's character.

AP: Court ousts judge, shaving order in Fort Hood case (4 Dec 2012):

Hasan appealed after Gross ordered that he must be clean-shaven or be forcibly shaved before his military trial, which had been set to begin three months ago. It has been on hold pending the appeals.

An Army appeals court upheld the shaving requirement in October. But Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces said the command, not the judge, is responsible for enforcing grooming standards.

Gross had repeatedly said Hasan's beard was a disruption to the court proceedings, but the military appeals court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to show that was true.

Gross found Hasan in contempt of court at six previous pretrial hearings because he was not clean-shaven, then sent him to a nearby trailer to watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit television. The appeals court's ruling also vacated the contempt of court convictions.

If the defendant wants to appear as a combatant in "God's Army", so what. The evidence needed to convict appears to be more than adequate.

Why do some judges allow themselves to be diverted by collateral issues ? The need to assert their authority, I'd posit - but to what end when justice is delayed ?

Regards

Mike

[Polarbear1605]

But Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces said the command, not the judge, is responsible for enforcing grooming standards.

I have to agree with the court on that one...that is a command responsibility and in this case it means the convening authority is not doing their job. The defendent should be ordered to shave and if not, a charge added to the court martial for failure to obey an order from his commanding officer. This is another example of a commander deferring his command responsibility (lack of leadership) to the lawyers.

[jmm99]

I agree with your technical legal reasoning:

The defendent should be ordered to shave and if not, a charge added to the court martial for failure to obey an order from his commanding officer.

and also that, when a commander defers what should be his or her decisions to his or her lawyers, IMO: the lawyers have a fool for a client.

But, you wouldn't seriously prefer a charge for failure to obey a shaving order if you were his CO, would you ?

I mean, the guy is faced with a baker's dozen of death penalty charges. An added charge for failure to obey an order would be meaningless to what happens to him on the capital charges - and would itself be a diversion.

Ironically, this SOB could have avoided the whole shooting spree by simply refusing the order to deploy to a Muslim country (his initial stated reasoning against the deployment order). He then would have been prosecuted for failure to obey an order, where the sentencing guidelines would have been relatively generous.

No, instead he decided to be a jihadist, etc - for reasons that had to go well beyond his initial stated reasoning.

Regards

Mike

[Polarbear1605]

Agree with everything you say...but I can still complain...right?
First and foremost they need to be talking to one another and it appears they are not. In this case, the judge initiated the issue with the “forced shaving” ultimatum setting off a long delay for the appeal process. Second, if the commanding officer does not have the authority to “force shave” than neither does the military judge. There should have been an immediate after conversation (before would have been better) initiated by the commander/CA with the judge...Subj: WTF!, Over. And OH!..BTW…let me get ahead of the appeal court…your fired, judge.

If I were the commander/CA, I would be very upset about the appeal delay. This multi-murder happened, what, three years ago? Shaving, IMHO, is clearly a command issue getting back to “good order and discipline” command authority. If, I were commander/CA, and I wanted to avoid the appeal delay, I would have either told the judge …to not worry about the beard or I would appear at the brig with both sets of lawyers (defense and prosecution) order this guy to shave and when he refused add a charge. The add the charge part is in case he decided to shave before he appeared at the court martial. Not shaving is not going to help this guy before a sitting court of his peers.
The next reason these two need to be talking is the whole plea bargaining thing that may or may not happen. I cannot recall a plea bargaining paragraph in the UCMJ or the MCM…in my mind that clearly makes plea bargaining a command responsibility.

Another issue is that any finding by a court martial is essentially a recommendation because the commander/CA can accept, reject or modify.

Let’s talk about another case where the CA didn’t do their command job. Yep! Haditha…you knew I had to go there. One of the defendants in the Haditha case was a LT, intell type. The Lt was attached from 2MARDIV (Camp Lejuene) to the 1MARDIV Bn while both were in Iraq. Consequently, the court martial was held by 1MARDIV CA at Camp Pendleton. The LT was basically charge with obstruction of justice because he ordered his E-5 intell chief to destroy a set of photos of the Iraqi dead. He gave this order in accordance with standing orders that no pics of Iraqi dead were authorized and subsequently, found not guilty.

At one point in the pretrial proceedings, the Lt was actually discharged from the Maine Corps by his battalion commander back in Camp Lejeune. The prosecutor immediately added a charge to the Lt’s court martial for illegally discharging himself from the Marines. At the court martial, the defense attorney called the Lt’s 2MARDIV battalion commander and asked him why he discharged the LT. Answer: Because I am required by law to discharge him at the end of his contract. I can, however, place him on legal hold at the request of the CA. The prosecutor never requested or sent a legal hold letter to 2MARDIV. The prosecutor was charging the LT for his mistake. If I were the CA, I would have taken a considerable amount of both the prosecutor’s and judge’s time immediately after the charges were written up.

Commanders are turning their responsibilities over to the lawyers turning many of these show trials into clown schools.

[jmm99]

of Tony Waller (of our own) and Daniel Greysolon, sieur du Lhut (of the French Colonial Marines, in the late 1600s in my own UP of Michigan). The latter, in truth (my opinion thereof), did a better job of it than did Waller in a very similar situation. Perhaps, because du Lhut was not burdened with lawyers at all.

In neither case did the "separation of the convening authority and the court-martial" exist - and the commander was solely responsible for whatever decision was reached (even if, as in du Lhut's case, he elected to bring the prosecution before separate military and civilian panels). Brief note:

The last of these nations [JMM: Chippewa, Ojibwe] was especially difficult to manage as was demonstrated in 1684 when four of its warriors murdered two French traders. When one of the culprits appeared at the Jesuit mission of Sault Ste Marie the staff of 12 on duty there did not dare to arrest him, fearing the reprisals of his tribe. Dulhut, as soon as he learned of the incident, hurried to the mission, rounded up the suspects, including the chief Achinaga and his two sons, and put them on trial. Achinaga was acquitted and his younger son pardoned, but the two others who had been found guilty were executed before 400 Indians.

However, we don't live in 1902 or 1684 - even if some of us wouldn't mind returning to some aspects of those eras.

So, in the event(s) today, you as a smart bear (and convening authority) would consult all of the pitfalls of "Undue Command Influence" - attached as pdf - and wouldn't contact judge, counsel or anyone else involved in courts-martial in your command sphere.

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF UNLAWFUL COMMAND INFLUENCE

COMMANDMENT 1: THE COMMANDER MAY NOT ORDER A SUBORDINATE TO DISPOSE OF A CASE IN A CERTAIN WAY.

COMMANDMENT 2: THE COMMANDER MUST NOT HAVE AN INFLEXIBLE POLICY ON DISPOSITION OR PUNISHMENT.

COMMANDMENT 3: THE COMMANDER, IF ACCUSER, MAY NOT REFER THE CASE.

COMMANDMENT 4: THE COMMANDER MAY NEITHER SELECT NOR REMOVE COURT MEMBERS IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A PARTICULAR RESULT IN A PARTICULAR TRIAL.

COMMANDMENT 5: NO OUTSIDE PRESSURES MAY BE PLACED ON THE JUDGE OR COURT MEMBERS TO ARRIVE AT A PARTICULAR DECISION.

COMMANDMENT 6: WITNESSES MAY NOT BE INTIMIDATED OR DISCOURAGED FROM TESTIFYING.

COMMANDMENT 7: THE COURT DECIDES PUNISHMENT. AN ACCUSED MAY NOT BE PUNISHED BEFORE TRIAL.

COMMANDMENT 8: COMMANDERS MUST ENSURE THAT SUBORDINATES AND STAFF DO NOT “COMMIT” COMMAND INFLUENCE” ON THEIR BEHALF.

COMMANDMENT 9: THE COMMANDER MUST NOT HAVE AN INFLEXIBLE ATTITUDE TOWARDS CLEMENCY.

COMMANDMENT 10: IF A MISTAKE IS MADE, RAISE THE ISSUE IMMEDIATELY.

BTW: What was your last post - a test of my ability to do basic seamanship on UCI, or what ?



Regards

Mike

[jmm99]

From CSM, Why military judge has hands full with Nidal Hasan court-martial (by Patrik Jonsson, June 4, 2013):

After determining that Hasan is mentally and physically fit to defend himself, the military judge, Col. Tara Osborn, is now weighing the extent to which she’ll allow him to pursue his main defense: that he was justified in killing US soldiers about to deploy to Afghanistan to prevent the imminent deaths of Taliban soldiers.

I'd like to see more on this defense - It looks to be some form of RCM 916 justification.

Regards

Mike