My marine husband needs help!

[lilmaggy]

What is the name of your state? California
In a summary court martial after the closing arguments has been stated and the defendent is waiting for the verdict, would it be to late for the judge to enter new evidence that can be used against you? That is what my husband's judge did. He told my husband to leave and await the verdict and then called him back later on without a witness and said he had admitted a piece of evidence that he, himself, had dismissed earlier. Then judge's verdict was guilty and the sentencing is tomorrow morning.. We suspect that the judge is not an honest one and need the anwer to this question. My husband can probably get off on a technicallity. My husband has served for four years and is starting his fifth year in miltary service and because someone has it in for him it might mean the end of his career. If you know someone who can answer this question please do!!!!! I desparately want to help him seeing as how i'm not able to physcally be with him at the moment due to family illness.
Thank you

[BelizeBreeze]

The person who should be answering this question is your husband's attorney.

[CooL BrEEz]

The UCMJ (Uniform Code Of Military Justice) is a whole bunch trickier than civilian law. If yor husband does not have a JAG rep....you may want to call Family Support Services at the base he's stationed. USMA? Pendleton?

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by CooL BrEEz

The UCMJ (Uniform Code Of Military Justice) is a whole bunch trickier than civilian law. If yor husband does not have a JAG rep....you may want to call Family Support Services at the base he's stationed. USMA? Pendleton?

It's too late for that in these proceedings. If this guy doesn't already have an attorney then he'll have to find one for an appeal. If he does, then his attorney should be answering these questions.

And yes, the judge CAN allow evidence back into the case once it's been excluded. It depends entirely on the circumstances.

[badapple40]

The issue here was that this occurred in a summary court-martial. That means he did not have the right to an attorney (and the punishments are limited too).

You don't have to take the summary court-martial, and can demand trial by special court-martial (which means greater appeal rights, right to an attorney, etc.), but apparently your husband did not do that either.

The officer hearing the case need not even be a judge advocate (lawyer) in the case of a summary court-martial.