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| Military Judge Gives Bowe Bergdahl A Lot Of Bad News |
| 2017-07-16 |
| BLUF: [RedState] The four-star who has convening authority for courts-martial disapproved the recommendation for a Special Court and ordered that Bergdahl stand trial on [one count of desertion and one count of misbehavior before the enemy] and face a General Court Martial which can impose any sentence up to and including death. Another hearing was held in June before a military judge to decide if the charges were supported by the record or if they should be modified. Bergdahl’s team was really aiming to have the “misbehavior before the enemy” charge reduced or dropped altogether. If Bergdahl is tried on the misbehavior charge, whether or not he’s convicted of it, the evidence given to support that charge will ensure a court martial panel returns a really stiff sentence for desertion. Last week, the military judge overseeing the trial rendered two adverse decisions. First, he decided that Bergdahl will stand trial on all charges. Most damaging, though, was his decision that if Bergdahl is convicted that the jury would be allowed to hear about the injuries suffered by an Navy SEAL and an Army NCO while specifically searching for Bergdahl. I suspect we are heading for a guilty plea and Bergdahl taking his chances with a military judge. Any court-martial panel Bergdahl draws will be composed of officers with combat tours. Bergdahl can demand that a third of his jury be composed of noncommissioned officers senior in rank to him–but he’d have to have a profoundly incompetent defense team for them to think that senior NCOs are going to be very sympathetic to his case. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #12 I would have thought it was dead due to the shady prisoner swap orchestrated by the man some call Soetoro. It would have been dead, had the election turned out the way it was expected to... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2017-07-16 15:54 |
| #11 :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-07-16 14:42 |
| #10 Hehehe (@ Frank). |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2017-07-16 13:45 |
| #9 Good one, Frank. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2017-07-16 13:38 |
| #8 CorpseMan 'Mind like a steel trap' Rantburg impact award |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-07-16 13:34 |
| #7 Is there still an MOS or ASI for "Hangman"? |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2017-07-16 13:33 |
| #6 I'm very surprised the Bergdahl issue has already gone this far. I would have thought it was dead due to the shady prisoner swap orchestrated by the man some call Soetoro. Perhaps more trial work and digging will produce additional information on that disgusting chapter. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-07-16 12:56 |
| #5 Possibly FORSCOM, possibly something in the D.C area. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2017-07-16 12:51 |
| #4 BTW, any finding will likely end up at the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Don't try to stack the board. It has a record of frowning on such tactics. Got to play strategically. This is the court that has stalled all death penalty cases. Given that, on the battlefield which is why they exist, soldiers face the death penalty, it's hard to reconcile it being 'cruel and unusual'. I was curious about who's the convening authority. It has to be in the chain of command of the accused. They elevated it to Army Forces Command which does away with the clutter of the event occurring in Afghanistan in a unit that rotates between theater and home station, switching operational commands in the process. That means the pool will likely be personnel at the location of FORSCOM, Fort Bragg. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-07-16 10:09 |
| #3 I stand corrected. They clarified later, not in the sentence cited. No however, not a but in the cited sentence. That portion of enlisted must include similar in rank. That means they all won't just be E8s and E7, but someone of comparative rank. Been there, seen it, done it. Probably less sympathetic than an O6 (at least in my experience), along the lines, he won't have my back. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-07-16 08:51 |
| #2 You missed the last sentence: Bergdahl can demand that a third of his jury be composed of noncommissioned officers senior in rank to him–but he’d have to have a profoundly incompetent defense team for them to think that senior NCOs are going to be very sympathetic to his case. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2017-07-16 08:18 |
| #1 Any court-martial panel Bergdahl draws will be composed of officers with combat tours. RedState needs fact checkers. As an enlisted he is entitled to request that a portion of this board be composed of enlisted. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-07-16 07:23 |