Thursday, December 14, 2017

Supreme Court review and typographical errors

Congress provided in 1983 for direct Supreme Court review of decisions of the [now] U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces where that court has granted a petition review. Setting aside the handful of cases that are subject to mandatory CAAF review (cases certified by the Judge Advocates General and capital cases), unless CAAF grants discretionary review, a court-martial appeal cannot be taken to the Supreme Court by petition for a writ of certiorari.

Against that backdrop, consider this December 12, 2017 order in an Army case, from CAAF's Daily Journal:
Petitions for Grant of Review - Summary Dispositions
No. 18-0042/AR. U.S. v. Michael A. Knopik. CCA 20160811. On consideration of the petition for grant of review of the decision of the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals, it is ordered that said petition is hereby granted, and the decision of the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals is affirmed.*
* It is directed that the decision of the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals be corrected to reflect Appellant's middle initial as "A" vice "E."
Because the court granted review, albeit only in order to direct the lower court to correct a typographical error (wouldn't a phone call from one Clerk's Office to another have sufficed?), the entire case, including two Grostefon issues, is now eligible for Supreme Court review. Had there been no typo, it would not be.

The prosecution rests.

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