Why do you need a Civilian Military Attorney? As we note on our home page, at a court martial everyone assumes the defendant is guilty. You have probably heard that someone accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty. That’s only true in a strictly legal sense. But in terms of how people really think, once you’re accused of committing a crime, you can forget about the presumption of innocence. At a court martial the judge, the jury, the prosecutors, the commanders, the members of the defendant’s unit – everyone thinks the defendant did it, or else he wouldn’t be sitting there. It takes an aggressive, experienced military court martial attorney to overcome all of that. From the beginning of the case, the court martial defendant faces huge disadvantages. The government has unlimited resources at a court martial, but the appointed defense counsel’s office receives very little funding. The government will have at least two prosecutors at a court martial, while the defendant is typically entitled to have only one appointed attorney. The prosecution has an entire office of investigators, but the defense is entitled to none. The prosecution can afford to travel have any witness it wants to the court martial testify against the defendant, but the defense needs to get the government’s approval to fund any defense witness travel. The prosecution gets to use just about any expert witness it chooses, but the defense has to get the government’s approval to pay for any of the defense experts, and typically the government denies defense requests for specific experts. During the court martial, the defendant’s commander might pack the courtroom with members of the defendant’s unit, so that the command can send a message. If the defendant gets convicted, the appellate military courts will be very reluctant to undo the court martial results. In every sense, the odds are stacked against the court martial defendant. The prosecution uses those long odds to intimidate the defendant into taking a deal that he shouldn’t take. The prosecutors get to choose what crimes to charge the defendant with at a court martial, and they’re usually creative about it. This usually means that they will take an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach and charge the defendant with more crimes than they can hope to prove if the defendant chooses to fight the court martial. Many times, the prosecution simply charges the defendant with the same conduct but under several different crimes. This makes his potential punishment at court martial much greater, and the goal is to make the court martial defendant afraid of getting destroyed if he fights – even though his chances are always better if he pleads not guilty and fights the case. When you’re facing a court martial, you need a strong military attorney who isn’t intimidated by the long odds, the prosecutors, or the investigators. You need a military attorney who has done more trials by court martial than he can count, who knows how to talk to a jury, and who knows how to catch the government when it’s not playing fair. You need a military attorney who has been successful getting good experts appointed to help the defense. Most importantly, you need a military attorney who doesn’t owe the military anything and isn’t afraid that it will threaten his military career if he fights his hardest for the defendant.