United States v. Koke

The portrait of military justice painted in this case is not very flattering. The parents of an accused servicemember mortgage their home in Chicago, Illinois, so they can travel to and participate in their son’s court-martial in Korea. Once arriving at the situs of the court-martial, they were informed that the command would not conduct this trial as scheduled or before they had to return home. I do not join my fellow judges’ condonation of this type of command action or any suggestion that it can be lawfully accomplished without consideration of the fairness of the withdrawal and…