An Open Letter to the Military Trial Counsel from a Civilian Defense Counsel - Law Office of...

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"Cut out the games. Give me discovery. All of it.

My client is a person. He is not a name or a case number or a matter for you to deal with when you get the chance. Investigations drag on because trial counsels are not proactive and because many of you push my client’s case around like my toddler does the peas on his dinner plate. Cases continue (that’s what it is called when a case starts but has to delay) because you are failing in your job. Don’t assume that the defense wants delays and don’t ask the defense to seek one. Do your job and do it timely because my client is a person and the time ramping up to a trial is the most stressful of his life. Decide to care that he is a person and acknowledge that he is at risk for suicide. Even if he is completely innocent and sometimes especially because he is completely innocent. Ensure that you are not taking actions or are failing to take actions that put him at increased risk.

Be the guardian of justice that you are charged with being. It is an enormous burden and responsibility. And remember that I have walked in your shoes, but you have never walked in mine. And neither of us has walked in the shoes of my client. That makes him no less human, of no less of value to this world; he volunteered to serve his country the same as you, and the same as I did more than twenty years ago.

You will not steamroll him, his statutory rights, or the Constitution. Not as long as I am here. Not on my watch." - The Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart