Military justice by the numbers

The annual report of the Code Committee on Military Justice always makes interesting reading. The latest one is no exception. Here's a statistic of interest: during the year-long September 2012 Term of Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces granted 103 petitions for review and denied 635 (p. 17). That makes a grant rate of just under 14%. Since the U.S. Supreme Court can grant certiorari in petition cases only if CAAF has granted review, this means that roughly 86% of the cases on the largest part of its docket are ineligible for review by the Supreme Court. The only path open to the accuseds in those cases is to seek collateral review in the federal district courts or the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, where the scope of review is narrower and free military appellate defense counsel cannot represent them.

In contrast, all federal civilian criminal defendants, all state criminal defendants, and all military commissions accuseds have the right to seek Supreme Court review without having to persuade the next lower court that there is "good cause."

Why doesn't Congress correct this indefensible disparity?

Civilians tried by military court in Rwanda

The Voice of America has this report about a military court in Rwanda overruling a jurisdictional challenge by the 16 civilian defendants, two of whom are former soldiers. Global Military Justice Reform will try to keep tabs on developments in the case. Comments are especially welcome.

Military Justice Review Group website goes live

The Pentagon's Military Justice Review Group now has a website with information about where to submit suggestions by email and snail mail. This Federal Register notice will appear next Monday. "The MJRG’s review is focused on the structure and operation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM)."

If you submit anything, please post it here as well, using the Comment feature. Please note that comments on this blog must be posted under your full name (no pseudonyms).

Bangladesh civilian arrest of military officers

Here's a story out of Bangladesh. Three Army and Navy officers who had been assigned until recently to the Rapid Action Battalion were suspected of abducting and murdering seven civilians, including a city councilor. One of the three is the son-in-law of a cabinet minister. It took an order of the High Court to prompt civilian police to arrest the men, but not until the Armed Forces Division gave its approval could the police take action. According to bdnews24.com:

The AFD responded after the Narayanganj police had asked for its assistance in arresting the former officers.

The development comes four days after the High Court in an order asked the inspector general of police to arrest the three former Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officials.

Since the court order, given on May 11, their arrest order was not issued, though there were no legal barriers[,] because of apparent procedural complications between police and the army.

Chief judge of Bulgarian military appellate court suspended

Because of the pendency of criminal charges against him, chief judge Petko Petkov of the Bulgarian Military Appellate Court has been suspended, according to this news report. The Supreme Judicial Council took the action.