From the above:
“The prosecution presented excerpts from LTC Lakin’s Care inquiry in which he admitted under oath that his former attorney, Paul Jensen, expressly told the accused that the orders he’d received were lawful, and that as an attorney, Mr. Jensen said he could not ethically advise the accused to disobey them. There was no surrebuttal.”
That’s gonna hurt him bad, I would think.
Yes, that's not going to help his case.
It would be interesting to know what billets these bird colonels all hold. In my experience, field-grade officers not in command billets don't sentence as harshly as officers who do have command responsibility (what the Navy & Marine Corps refers to as "line officers") and who may better understand the practical consequences of a break down in good order & discipline.
This court-martial is being held in the DC Military District. It's possible that a good percentage of those 0-6s aren't line officers, which might help Lakin a bit.
I wonder what the TC and DC recommended.