Dwight Sullivan and Jonathan Potter gave an impressive lecture on the death penalty in the military yesterday. Three questions from the audience were intriguing and may be of interest to readers here: 1. Potter noted that only a large command will attempt to pursue a capital case because only a large command has the resources to do so. The audience wondered whether this would give rise to some sort of legal claim (probably Equal Protection?). [A thought: is this also true of other prosecution decisions, and if so, does it weigh in favor of centralizing disposition authority?] 2. Why are all of the current death row inmates in the military from the Army? 3. If there are so few capital cases, how would it be possible for a military JAG to become learned counsel given the requirement of second-chairing a previous capital case? Brenner FissellEIC
8 Comments
11/14/2020 01:42:13 pm
MLDHS can answer better than me, but the other Services' cases ended up with the DP off the table--e.g., Witt (AF), Quintanilla (MC), Parker (MC), Curtis (MC). Fricke (NA) had a PTA in a case referred non-capital. However, he was killed by another prisoner at the USDB, I think a month or two before he was to be paroled??? (ML???)
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Don Rehkopf
11/14/2020 02:47:41 pm
Having second-chaired two Army death penalty cases in the early 1980's, institutionally the military justice system simply lacks the experience (and thus, competence) to handle death penalty cases. E.g., the GTMO prisoners have more procedural due process rights than does an accused under the UCMJ, in death-eligible cases.
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11/14/2020 03:16:31 pm
Before I retired, I was one of only several very experienced Navy defense counsel. I was one of several who actually attended the required death penalty litigation training. In the only DP likely case I had we got the DP off the table after the 32--Note, the old 32 where you got discovery and witnesses and an opportunity to present reasons why a particular course of action was a better course for the commander. I would not pretend to be "learned counsel," and I don't know of any who might fit that bill at the moment.
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Tami a/k/a Princess Leia
11/14/2020 08:34:26 pm
There are only 4 inmates on death row. Yes, all of them are Army b/c the Army is the largest service, so statistically speaking, is one reason why, one of them had his death warrant signed by Pres. George Bush and is STILL alive, and all 4 of them have committed heinous crimes.
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Dwight Sullivan
11/15/2020 07:06:18 pm
[Standard disclaimer: This comment is offered in my personal capacity and should not be imputed to anyone or anything else.] My Liege -- LCDR Michael Fricke was doing 30 years in the USDB for hiring someone to kill his wife. About three months before he was scheduled to be paroled, he was umpiring a USDB softball game. Inmate Steven Chapman (who was confined for life after being convicted of offenses including premeditated murder and rape) was apparently dissatisfied with his calls and hit him in the head with a baseball bat, causing fatal head trauma. When asked for comment, the mother of his victim -- Fricke's former mother-in-law -- said, "All we can say is, God takes care of everything." https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/article_85176e31-2b9a-57a9-86a5-f85895dde3f3.html .
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manyopinions
11/17/2020 02:40:05 pm
Wasn't Bales originally referred capital? At least two of his detailed defense counsel remain in the Army, but that might be as deep as the "bench" gets for current DP practitioners.
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Tami a/k/a Princess Leia
11/17/2020 03:44:01 pm
I believe Bales was referred capital, but he pled guilty to take the DP off the table. Got LWOP.
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Charles Anzalone
12/2/2021 11:01:35 am
When the military death penalty was briefly overturned in 1983 (US v Matthews), death row was emptied and all death sentences inmates had their sentences commuted to life. (Matthews, Gay, Brown aka Mustafa, Redmond, Artis, Hutchinson, Rojas). All were transferred to the feds eventually where all were eventually paroled except for Rojas who died in prison in 1998 and Matthews aka Al-Mutawkkil, who is still confined at USP Marion. They are not the only service members once sentenced to death who had their sentences commuted to life and are free today, others include King, Relford, Turner, and Dock.
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