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Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Air Force appellate rights form nonsensical
The standard form that the Air Force uses for an Airman to invoke his or her right to appellate counsel makes no sense. The form -- AF IMT 304 (I have no idea what "IMT" stands for -- JMTGst, little help?) -- states in part: "I REQUEST APPELLATE DEFENSE COUNSEL TO REPRESENT ME before the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals (if my case is referred to it) and to urge in my behalf all efforts or other matters which appellate counsel may discover from the record of trial and accompanying papers." I can only assume that the word "efforts" should read "issues," though the form wouldn't be mistaken for Steinbeck even with that change.
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5 comments:
IMT = "Information Management Tool". It means electronic form, and refers to AF forms converted to a commercial software platform (PureEdge), which replaced the FormFlow program in 2002-2003.
Only the military could create an Information Management Tool/electronic form that defense counsel will, more than likely, need to give to every court martial accused . . . in hard copy.
On the topic of appellate rights forms, why does an appellant need to execute a power of attorney authorizing his assigned appellate counsel to file pleadings, petition CAAF, etc, on his behalf?
And, assuming there's some good reason for executing such a power of attorney, why would an appellant execute the standard Navy form which also includes a waiver of his right to personal service of any court decision?
I've honestly never been able to figure this out and, despite a few specified issues, CAAF has never really addressed it outside the context of whether a petition has been timely filed.
SD
I was prosecuting a court-martial when BGen (then-Col) Ted Hess had the best line ever about appellate rights forms. Defense counsel handed up the appellate rights form, which had probably been copied 1000 times from the form in the back of the NJS handbook. BGen Hess then said "I suspect eventually I'm going to be handed one of these that's just a blank white piece of paper."
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