Monday, November 27, 2006

First opinion of the term!

Today there was a little something extra in the Navy-Marine Corps Appellate Defense Division's CAAF envelope. No, not an end-of-the-year bonus -- though the Division has had a very good year. Rather, it was the first CAAF opinion of the 2007 term.

United States v. Simon, __ M.J. ___, No. 05-0563 (C.A.A.F. Nov. 27, 2006), is a unanimous 10-page opinion authored by Chief Judge Effron. CAAF issued the opinion a mere 40 days after oral argument.

Simon set aside the Navy-Marine Corps Court's decision and remanded the record for a new Article 66 review. We will post an analysis of the opinion tonight.

BZ to LT Rich McWilliams.
Posted by Dwight Sullivan at 5:09 PM

1 comment:

Guert Gansevoort said...

I do not have the contacts in the Navy-Marine Corps Appellate Defense Division like Colonel Sullivan that would make me privy to an advance copy of Simon but, having listened to the arguments in that case, it appears to be a prime example of the government's failure to concede issues at the lowest possible level instead of having damaging caselaw made by the C.A.A.F. Simon suffers from schizoaffective disorder and his original appellate defense counsel elected not to contact him to appeal his case. The government refused to concede the case, allowing for abatement until Simon was competent to assist in his appeal, on the grounds that Simon waived his right to partipate in his appeal when he signed his post-trial appellate rights advisement and special power of attorney. Judge Effron's questions from the bench suggest that those in charge of the Appellate Government Division would be well advised to put down their Dr. Suess books and pick up a volume of William Shakespeare-The better part of valour is discretion.

Mon Nov 27, 08:44:00 PM EST

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