A few years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled the Constitution requires a unanimous verdict in criminal trials. The U.S. military does not. Last week, SCOTUS agreed that is ok. That is bad news for millions of American citizens. And if a draft is every re-instated, for all of America.
Ok,…
The best writing builds a moving story in the mind of the reader. Cinema can bring that story to life in a way that forces viewers to feel a story that might be more monumental than they imagined. I’m four years late, but I recently came across The 24th, a fictionalized depiction of the…
A few weeks ago, the Army announced the correction of records of 110 soldiers convicted by court-martial after the so-called “Houston Riots” in 1917. Here is, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.”
The Army, like all of the services (and American society) remained segregated in 1917. Upon entering World War I,…
At the heart of the early American court-martial was the convening authority, the military commander with the legal authority to convene such a proceeding.[1] The Army and Navy of the period was not only quite small relative to today, they also existed in a world with limited communications bandwidth. Generals, Admirals, and (Navy) Captains…
By 1806, judge advocates were introduced as a mandatory aspect of courts-martial. Sort of. And only on the prosecution side. Sort of. Military defendants were, though, allowed to hire a civilian lawyer to represent them. Not really. But when they could, the lawyer usually wasn’t allowed to speak. . . .
Adding a new character…
The Continental Congress enacted the first Articles of War under fire. British troops occupied Boston. The British Navy blockaded Boston Harbor. The “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” was fired at Lexington. Neighboring colonies sent militia to assist the Massachusetts response. The Siege of Boston was underway. The colonies were at war with Great Britain.
Under…
“This Court has long recognized that the military is, by necessity, a specialized society separate from civilian society. We have also recognized that the military has, again by necessity, developed laws and traditions of its own during its long history. The differences between the military and civilian communities result from the fact that ‘it is…
