We have been discussing the practice of reservists serving as MJs while having full time employment as DOJ prosecutors. Concrete examples sometimes help. Consider this: link. Lt. Col. Gleason will spend almost all of his weekdays standing up in federal court in North Carolina, starting his appearances with the words "Mr. Gleason for the United States." In the rare moments when he is acting as a reserve MJ, however, we expect him to shake off this habit and the attitudes that come with it, and to impartially judge a case in which "the United States" is on one side of the "V." The obvious, blatant conflict of interest is squarely framed by Gleason's own words: “What can be better than representing the United States of America, and have the opportunity to do that every day, and have the opportunity to do the right thing. Not every job you can say that, but in this job, you do.” (emphasis added). Presumably the "doing the right thing" part is serving as an MJ. What could be better, indeed, for Lt. Col. Gleason, than to be able to have a great career in DOJ and to also get to wear a robe once in a while. The accused who appear before him would likely answer that question differently. "What could be better?" A judge without the appearance of a conflict of interest. Brenner Fissell
Concerned Citizen
10/1/2021 08:32:46 pm
I get the issue with handing prosecutors as judges, but I think that's a little unfair to LTC Gleason. Of course he thinks he's "doing the right thing" in his job as an AUSA.
Lone Bear
10/2/2021 02:09:29 am
It’s all relative. How impartial is a judge who gets ranked against other judges, has detailing cycling left, and who hopes to promote? For the most part, I think AUSAs would make good reserve judges since they at least know and understand the rules of evidence. I don’t know that they are more conflicted than other judges. No military judge is really conflict free, but many do the job with integrity and to the best of their ability.
Anonymous
10/2/2021 09:04:46 am
This post seems a bit hyperbolic.
Brenner
10/2/2021 09:08:51 am
You’re really straining to defend this. Lots of technicalities. He IS a prosecutor. He also IS a judge. Not ok. QED. 10/2/2021 10:10:33 am
Let's focus on the specific issue here.
Anon
10/2/2021 03:30:38 pm
Navy JAG Corps has federal public defenders as reserve MJs. They also have/had civilian defense counsel who often appear in many courts-martial as reserve MJs, though out of "home" circuits. This includes at least one who advertisers that he "represents registered persons" and doesn't believe in sex offense registration. (MJ tap dances hard at void dire)That's a fine political belief, but when the victim as a member of the public sits in the back for the judge alone trial (how surprising) what's the perception these scenarios give? Time to ditch reserve MJs across the boards. It is not just an AUSA issue. 10/2/2021 06:58:24 pm
This hypersensitivity about the perception of possible unfair judicial bias reminds me of a Winnie the Pooh movie I watched for family date night last weekend. Throughout almost the whole movie, Pooh and friends are mortally afraid of and desperately hiding or running from something they call a Backson. They don't know what it is because they've never actually seen one, they just know that if it catches them it will do horrible things to them. In the end (spoiler alert), Pooh and company figure out that the Backson never existed. It was just a big misunderstanding all along (Chrisopher Robbin said he'd be "back soon" before he left the Hundred Acre Wood for a while, and the friends thought a "Backson" must've disappeared him).
Brenner
10/3/2021 01:53:14 pm
Brian—That ship has sailed. Perceptions matter. That’s the law. 10/3/2021 11:25:06 pm
Brenner,
Matt Jones
10/6/2021 01:57:08 pm
Brian, the better analogy is whether there should be a referee at the Steelers Packers game who is currently employed by the Packers, and will be returning to work for the Packers on the Monday after the game. Is it enough to just hope that he is going to be fair? Or would such a practice severely undermine the confidence of Steelers fans regarding the fairness of the whole setup? 10/12/2021 11:16:54 pm
Matt,
Allan
10/4/2021 10:50:07 am
Funny thing. My thought is there is not a problem when a military judge has the mindset of a prosecutor. Instead, the problem is that many prosecutors do not have the correct mindset of a prosecutor. More than even judges, prosecutors must be fair. I only have difficulty with the prosecutor being a military judge when the prosecutor does not meet this standard.. Comments are closed.
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