Also..any advice you might have would be helpful here:I've tried to attend courts-martial at an Air Force base in Massachusetts and a Navy installation in Connecticut and have been told each time that I cannot attend because I wouldn't be authorized to enter the installation itself.The MCM,issued *after* Fort Hood,clearly states (in Rule 806) that only in the most unusual situations can a civilian be denied permission to attend a court martial.Any thoughts/advice for me on this? Thanks!
The military judge, during the voir dire .. or jury selection .. process, specifically asks each prospective panel member if they are capable of putting aside senior/junior aspects so as to be able to freely deliberate, especially if the questioning indicates that there is a chain-of-command senior/junior relationship between any of the members. Any senior member who would say that they would be likely to hold a junior's opinion as to the findings or sentence would, pretty much on level of certainty, be immediately released from service on the panel and sent back to their duties.
I've worked in military court's since 1978 and, over the years, have come to the conclusion that, if I had to be tried by any system out there, I would prefer to be tried by the military justice system .. with the protections offered by Article 32 and knowing that the panel members .. the jury .. on your case have been through what you have, have a similar background, and are intelligent enough to understand the evidence.
Of course, there is still a chance of wrongful conviction, but I truly believe that there's less chance of it in a court-martial than in your average county or district court. Notably, specifically since the big emphasis on prosecuting sexual assault/rape cases in the military began, most of the he said/she said type of cases that we've been getting have resulted in acquittals. Generally, it seems that military courts take the view that both parties are responsible for their actions and, if there's not some amount of evidence (or reasonable doubt) that there was force or violence involved in the assault/rape, it's not enough to convict. And they pay very close attention to claims of rape/sexual assualt where it takes the alleged victim days, weeks, or months to make the claim of the crime.
On the first question: there are different schools of thought, but generally there are instructions the judge reads to the panel before they retire for deliberations, including an admonition against he use of unlawful influence by any panel member.
On the second question, I’m not sure what current policy is, but the UCMJ still says a CM is a public proceeding and is only closed for the taking of classified evidence or highly sensitive testimony,AND must be reopened immediately afterward. I don’t know whether that section would trump a lack of authorization to enter the federal reservation.