Eugene Fidell
Eugene Fidell
Eugene R. Fidellis an American lawyer specializing in military law. He is currently Senior Research Scholar in Law and Florence Rogatz Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School...
drill grabbing hands happened hitting lay recruit supposed
Basically, you're not supposed to lay your hands on a recruit. You don't really want to have drill instructors grabbing a recruit by the collar, which is what happened here, and you don't want to have them hitting them with elbows.
conduct convicted gets heads highly people soldier
I think people around the world are going to be scratching their heads at that sentence. The conduct of which this soldier was convicted is highly offensive, and if this is all one gets it's not impunity, but it's getting real close.
criminal earlier gaps major
It does look like there were some major gaps in the earlier investigations, which were not criminal investigations incidentally.
court gave given map personnel road supreme turbulence
I think given the personnel turbulence on the Supreme Court right now, as well as the less-than-clear road map the court gave us in 2004, it's a whole new ballgame.
ball conclude court failing favors further move nobody people supreme
I think many people have come to conclude that the Supreme Court did nobody any favors by failing to move the ball further down the field.
general recall
I can't recall a four-star general ever being called on as a witness.
central follow liberated office prosecutor pursue question run wherever
The real question is who is the independent prosecutor who is liberated to pursue these cases. There is no central prosecution office run by commanders. So you don't have a D.A. thinking, I'm going to follow this wherever it leads.
equivalent
We will have the equivalent of 'letters de cachet'.
exhaustive finding happened nature responsibility standpoint
It's to have an exhaustive look at the matter, not only from the standpoint of potentially assigning responsibility but finding out what happened and making recommendations of a systemic nature so that it doesn't happen again.
actual capable changing course courts feared itself legal number response shown speed
The administration has shown itself a number of times capable of changing course and speed in response to actual or feared legal developments, be it in the courts or in Congress. This may be another illustration of that tendency.
change changing false function official people positions statements whether
It's indefensible that something like that happened. And if that change of positions was a function of people changing their stories, then the investigation really has to look into whether false official statements were made, or for that matter, whether there was an obstruction of justice.
lead obviously three
It obviously could lead to one of three things. Was there a negligent homicide? Was there a dereliction of duty? Was there a cover-up?
fact form gives negotiate request side witness
It is a fact that having a request for a witness can be a form of leverage; it gives you something that you can negotiate with the other side about. If you don't ask, you're never going to have any leverage.
follow wherever
You don't have a D.A. thinking, I'm going to follow this wherever it leads.