Court martial bloopers part two. I hope you guys are liking this because I am. Okay, so this one is from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, circa around 2012. It’s a post-trial, 39 A. So after there’s been a conviction, if there’s an issue that comes up and there needs to be a fact finding, maybe the appellate court sends it back for like a fact discovering issue, whatever. I don’t remember what the issue was, but, ’cause I was then involved in the case, I was just merely there as a spectator. So it’s, you know, post trial 39As don’t happen a lot. I wanted to see one, whatever. And so there’s a United States disciplinary bar, disciplinary barracks there, right? Like it’s the USDB. It’s a big deal. It’s where people go when they get sent to a lot long amount of time or if it’s an officer.
And so it’s the people who have longer sentences. Somehow this disciplinary barracks prisoner needs to come in and provide some testimony. And the government, I guess had given him a grant of immunity so that whatever he’s gonna talk about is protected, right? So he also has a lawyer. I knew his lawyer, his lawyer, and I had actually practiced as defense counsels together at Fort Hood when I was in uniform. Andso at this point, I’m a special victim prosecutor, but I’m there for this post-trial session. I’m just observing. And it was kind of nice to see him and just be like, how’s it going? Whatever. So the disciplinary barracks prisoner is escorted in, excuse me. He goes up to the witness box, prosecutor dutifully walks over, and this happens in like a trial. First thing is that witness oath.
Do you solemnly swear that the evidence you’ll give in the case now in hearing will the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? It’s so routine that it’s just right, like it’s just routine. And the disciplinary barracks prisoner goes, no. And I’m like, no. Like, you don’t, you don’t swear your oath. The judge didn’t have any heads up, I guess, that this was going to happen. I didn’t know this was going to happen. And so the judge, is like do you want to talk to your lawyer? And that’s the attorney who’s there in the audience who I knew. And he goes I doubt it. Like not just a bubble thought he says that from the gallery. So clearly he knew that this was a possibility and the judge is like, what is going on? And he just says, you need to talk to your lawyer. And he is like, no. You know, the only thing that like came out of this man’s mouth was no. And so the judge takes a recess, I presume, to like go back in chambers and maybe call, like we always call like phone a friend, like to ask another judge like, has this ever happened to you? Like, what do I do? So she comes back out and she’s like, did you talk to your lawyer? And he is like, no. And she’s like, you understand this grant of immunity? He is like, no, I’m telling you the only thing this guy says is no. And then the judge is like send this witness back to wherever it is that he came from. And that was it.
