Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Fort Bragg Capital Court Martial Update

Testimony in the Martinez court martial resumed on Monday. Here are reports on Friday's and Monday's testimony. The defense stated yesterday they anticipate testimony won't end until next week. According to news reports at least one member and the military judge were tiring of what the military judge referred to as “repetitive testimony on inconsequential points.” Not exactly the characterization of your case you hope for from the military judge.

3 comments:

Dew_Process said...

For anyone who has ever defended a capital case at the trial level, it is a maddening experience. If the client gets convicted and sentenced to death, every single thing that you do, did not do, decided not to do, or never thought of, will be examined by a team of experience capital appellate/post-conviction lawyers. This MJ knows that for sure. It's a fine line and with life/death on the line, if he's not cutting them some slack, I suspect it is repetitive, which further suggests that repetition is an intentional defense tactic.

Having done two of them you tend to leave no stone unturned, boring or not, until the MJ shuts you down, which then at leaves gives you "preserved" error.

Anonymous said...

Thus either the MJ is a fool, or opposes the DP and wants error in the record.
I hate to say it, but without knowing the guy it is a coin flip.

Anonymous said...

He's no fool, by all accounts. But, impatient seems apt.