A judge in the Court of Federal Claims recently issued a decision in the case of Guardado v. United States. Guardado had been a Master Sergeant in the Army when he was convicted of several offenses at court-martial in 2014. He was sentenced to eight years confinement, total forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and … Read more
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces recently decided the case of United States v. Harrington. Airman First Class Harrington was tried and convicted of involuntary manslaughter, communicating a threat, and the unlawful use of cocaine and marijuana. The drug and threat specifications resulted from a separate incident from the involuntary manslaughter offense. The … Read more
On January 1, 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 took effect. One of the provisions of that law significantly improves servicemembers’ chances of getting their names removed from the federal DCII and NCIC background check databases. The new law allows a servicemember who was investigated by military law enforcement agencies to … Read more
Unlawful command influence has been called the “mortal enemy” of military justice. Article 37(a)(3) of the UCMJ prohibits any person subject to the UCMJ from attempting to coerce or, by any unauthorized means, attempting to influence the action of a court-martial. Some common examples are when a command prevents other servicemembers from testifying on behalf … Read more
Prosecutors sometimes create specifications that cover multiple instances of the same alleged criminal behavior. For example, in a domestic violence case where the servicemember is accused of assaulting his spouse on several occasions over a period of time, this can be charged as one specification of assault occurring “on divers occasions” over that period. This … Read more
District Court Judge decides important case regarding the ability to attack a court-martial conviction in civilian courts. Read more: https://courtmartial.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bergdahl-Decision.pdf For a consultation on your case, contact us at bill@courtmartial.com.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces recently decided the case of United States v. Cunningham. Senior Airman Cunningham was convicted of murdering his infant son. He was sentenced to eighteen years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to E-1, and a dishonorable discharge. During the sentencing proceedings, the baby’s mother and … Read more
In 2020, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Ramos v. Louisiana. In Ramos, the Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury included the requirement that jury verdicts be unanimous in order to convict. Since that time, military practitioners have been arguing to the military courts of appeal that … Read more
William E. Cassara, PC, just obtained expungement from national databases of a military law enforcement (MLE) record that unjustly implied a U.S. Navy sailor had committed a sexual offense aboard ship in 2021. The expungement of this harmful and misleading record was achieved by showing the facts of the case and by invoking a recent change … Read more
The Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals recently decided the case of United States v. London. Lance Corporal (LCpl) London was in Boston with two friends when they encountered several members of the Emerson College men’s and women’s lacrosse teams at an apartment building. LCpl London’s group of three spoke for a while with a … Read more