The first ever court-martial of a U.S. Air Force general officer has been put off for over three months because of concerns over COVID-19, according to this report. The case involves three specifications of sexual assault. The trial is expected to last 14 days. Why so long?
Are other cases moving forward, or is the entire military justice system frozen?
With a 2 star accused, voir dire will be interesting and unlikely to move quickly, because at that rank, most general officers would be quite familiar with the case. From the nature of the charges, I also suspect that there will be a slew of MRE 412 issues to deal with, especially with three complainants.
ReplyDeleteBut 14 days?
Delete1. The standard practice is one week. There are of course "big" cases that are scheduled for longer--e.g, the "war" crimes cases.
ReplyDelete2. The AF does not always schedule motions sessions in advance of the trial date. That may not have happened here, which means the first days will be motions practice.
3. One suspects the voir dire and sitting a panel may take more than the usual one, sometimes two days.
4. Based on the allegations reported, normally the case would take three to four days from voir dire to sentencing (if any).
5. Most sexual assault cases these days have MRE 412, 413, and 523 issues, so the lawyers and judge should be very familiar with the law. It then becomes a balancing act (MRE 430) based on the proffers and evidence. I would expect that the parties have filed their motions well before now so the judge should be well alerted to the issues.
6. Judge Milam is known to be careful, thoughtful, and thorough.
Phil, in your nearby district court (a/k/a the Rocket Docket), this case would be over and done in 4 days, tops.
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