Courts-Martial, Charlottesville, and Week 4 of JAG School

*In this post, I discuss my experience in Charlottesville, Virginia during week 4 of the Army JAG School. *

Week 4 of JAG School is now behind us, and we have completed the military justice block of instruction. Our mock trial began on Friday, and, while the trial exercise continues on Monday, I completed my portion this week.

Classes

This week we wrapped up our classroom instruction for military justice with some final classes on opening and closing arguments, sentencing, and post-trial procedure. We also had plenty of opportunity to break off into smaller groups to practice developing the skills necessary to perform well at our mock trial.

Then, on Friday, we had our trial. Because of the number of people in the course, we will actually conduct the same trial twice with half of the people going on Friday and the other half going on Monday. Each person is assigned a certain role to play during the trial, such as trial counsel, defense counsel, assistance defense counsel, etc. The trial is our final graded exercise.

I was assigned to play trial counsel for the sentencing phase of the process—the accused is always found guilty so that we can practice this—which means that I was responsible for arguing on behalf of the government what the punishment should be.

Unlike the civilian world where the defendant is usually convicted by a jury and then sentenced by a judge, the panel—the equivalent of the jury—both determines guilt and the punishment that should be imposed. There are also no minimum required punishments—except for a very few crimes—and so the panel could find the accused guilty and then impose no punishment.

My role was to argue on behalf of the government what the punishment should be. After performing the direct examination of one witness, I then had to give a sentencing argument, which is very similar to a closing argument. The case was a sexual assault, so I argued for 30 years confinement and a dishonorable discharge.

On Monday, the other half of the group has to go, but I have now completed the military justice block of instruction.

Appreciating Charlottesville

Charlottesville is very conveniently located in proximately to a variety of interesting locations and tourist destinations. This weekend my wife flew into town, so we spent the weekend in Washington DC, which is only about two hours away. On the way back to Charlottesville, we stopped at James Madison’s home—pictured below—which I would recommend. It is only about half an hour away from Charlottesville.

Also nearby are Yorktown, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Monticello, and a variety of other interesting historical locations. Attending the JAG School provides a lot of opportunity to gain meaningful experiences.

Next Week

Next week we complete the last day of trial and move onto contract and fiscal law. I’m not yet sure what all this will entail, but I will post an update next week.

I provide a more expansive account of my experience at the Army JAG School in my book The JAG School Survival Guide: Succeeding at the Army’s Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course.

The views and opinions expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Army, the National Guard Bureau, the Arkansas National Guard, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government.

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See also:

Week 3 of the Army JAG School

Week 5 of the Army JAG School