Illinois Army National Guard Lt. Colonel Now Judge

Attorney and soldier: Lt. Col. Smith reports for duty as associate judge 
News-Democrat
BY ELIZABETH DONALD
September 6, 2015

She also worked with the veterans court, helping veterans who end up in the court system: Often it is drug- or alcohol-related cases stemming from post-traumatic stress disorder, she said, with some domestic or anger and mood issues. The veterans court is designed to help veterans resolve legal issues stemming from their service with treatment and counseling rather than jail time.

It’s been a good year for Sarah D. Smith. Smith, 39, is an attorney and prosecutor in Madison County who serves in the Illinois Army National Guard.

Two weeks ago, she was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. She and her husband are expecting their third child. And she’s just been named one of the newest associate judges in the 3rd Judicial Circuit. “It’s been a very good year,” Smith said, laughing. “It’s a little overwhelming.”

In the Army National Guard, Smith was in the motor pool, working as a light-vehicle mechanic. She served in Afghanistan and Kosovo and has been decorated with the Bronze Star. Her military benefits helped pay for law school, Smith said, and after she graduated, she was commissioned as an officer into the JAG Corps — Judge Advocate General. read more here

George Washington Law Student's Death Ruled Suicide

Second-year law student's death ruled a suicide 
The GW Hatchet
by Colleen Murphy
News Editor
Issue: March 16, 2015

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of Kristen Tassone. Gregory Levine with friend and GW Law School classmate Kristen Tassone. Classmates said they would remember Levine, who was found dead on Nov. 13, as a loyal friend and strong student.

Second-year law student Gregory Levine’s death has been ruled a suicide, the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner said Monday.

The 27-year-old was found dead in his Jefferson House apartment on Nov. 13.

Levine was originally from Woodmere, N.Y. and was interested in international criminal law and space law.

Friends and professors said he was kind and attentive to the people he loved.

Levine externed with U.S. Army JAG in Fort Belvoir, Va. during the fall semester. He was a member of 11 student organizations at one point during his time at GW, including the Military Law Society, Space Law Society and Criminal Law Society.

He was also the historian of the American Constitution Society for the last two years.
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Law Students helping veterans fight for legal rights

Veterans’ next battle: Legal rights
Associated Press
By LAUREN KIRKWOOD
August 17, 2014

To increase the number of attorneys serving veterans, the Pro Bono Resource Center, in partnership with a few other groups, offers several free training sessions each year for attorneys who make a commitment to use their training pro bono.

BALTIMORE (AP) - In a year when the Department of Veterans Affairs has repeatedly come under fire for problems ranging from deadly delays in medical appointments to its hefty backlog of benefit claims, the need for legal assistance for veterans has often taken a lower priority.

But that’s about to change.

Recent efforts to help veterans obtain benefits or gain access to other resources are underway at law schools, bar associations, community groups and even the VA itself.

“I think the sheer number of claims, and the resources that are available to process them, necessitate more lawyering in this area,” said Hugh McClean, director of the new Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “There’s just a tremendous need for veterans’ assistance right now.”

Four law students supervised by McClean, a veteran of the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps and a former Air Force law professor, will work about 20 hours each week handling cases while also learning through a weekly seminar and reading assignments, he said. In the spring, the number of students in the clinic will likely increase to six.

There are only about 30 such veterans clinics at law schools across the country, McClean said. Pushing for more, the American Bar Association voted at its annual meeting Aug. 11 to urge law schools to create veterans’ clinics or, if that’s not possible, to serve veterans’ needs through an existing clinic.
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Marine and Navy Judge Advocates want Congress to investigate Commandant

Marine Corps commandant accused of asserting unlawful influence
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: October 25, 2013

A group of 27 retired and former Marine Corps and Navy judge advocates and officers are asking Congress to investigate allegations that Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos used his power to improperly influence legal proceedings following a scandal that arose after a group of Marines were filmed urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in 2011.

According to the letter, which was earlier this week in the Marine Corps Times, Amos and one or more senior legal advisers denied Marines due process, made misleading statements under oath and abused the legal discovery process. The co-signers said he also tried to “besmirch and disparage the reputation and career of the one Marine lawyer who, at great risk to his military career, did the right thing and reported all of this to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense.”

The letter was addressed to the chairmen of both the House and Senate armed services committees, and includes signatures from attorneys for some of the troops Amos is alleged to have wronged.
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Accused sit in jail as military courts drag feet on appeals

Accused sit in jail as military courts drag feet on appeals
By MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: June 10, 2011

Gunnery Sgt. Brian Foster spent more than nine years waiting for his court appeal to be heard after being convicted on rape charges by his ex-wife. After finally winning his appeal, he returned to the Marines.
PETER MAROVICH/MCT

WASHINGTON — Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Brian W. Foster served nearly a decade in Leavenworth for a crime he didn't commit.

Foster is now free and serving his country once more. The military appeals system that failed him, meanwhile, is still trying to right itself.

"It's a terrible system," Foster said. "The judges and attorneys who had the opportunity to stand up and say 'this isn't right,' they didn't do that."

The court that finally freed Foster in 2009 called him a victim of "judicial negligence" and "intolerable" errors. The nine-year delay between conviction and appeal was "unacceptable," the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals acknowledged.

While Foster's experiences were extreme, they were not entirely unique. Other soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have likewise languished in appellate limbo.

A McClatchy review of thousands of pages of court and military documents reveals persistent delays that have long frustrated repeated reform efforts. These appellate delays can interfere with the ability of veterans to find jobs, secure benefits and, sometimes, regain their freedom.
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Accused sit in jail as military courts drag feet on appeals

Family adamant about colonel's 2008 death: It was not suicide

Family adamant about colonel's 2008 death: It was not suicide
By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 08, 2011

HUDSON --
At the kitchen table of their Heritage Pines home, filled with treasures collected over a lifetime of service to the country, John and Mary Lou Stahlman look through pictures of their youngest child, the highest-ranking Marine casualty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michael Stahlman as a Marine Corps fighter pilot. As a Judge Advocate General Corps lawyer who investigated civilian killings. As a Marine colonel going on the jogs he loved.

The pictures bring back memories, but the most vivid is the one that came from their daughter-in-law Kimberly Stahlman on July 31, 2008. The news was shocking: The Marines said her husband had been found in his bunk in Ramadi, Iraq, with a single gunshot wound to the left temple.

Michael Stahlman survived for several months but succumbed to infections Oct. 5, 2008. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

To the military, the case is open-and-shut. The Marines ruled his death a suicide, saying Stahlman shot himself with his Marine-issued Beretta 9 mm.

Stahlman's parents, though, don't believe the Marines' version of what happened half a world away.

"He was murdered," John Stahlman says steadfastly.

"I could scream," Mary Lou Stahlman says. "He was making plans to come home. He would never kill himself."
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Family adamant about colonel's 2008 death: It was not suicide

Lt. Dan Driscoll mobilized to Walter Reed

Lt. Dan Driscoll mobilized to Walter Reed
By Nancy White / nwhite@cnc.com
Fri May 15, 2009, 10:10 AM EDT

There are few among us who can imagine leaving our home, our families and our jobs for a year.

But, for Cohasset resident Dan Driscoll — Lieutenant Colonel Dan Driscoll of the US Army — that is exactly what will happen come June.

Driscoll, who has served in both the Navy and Army reserves since 1988, is heading to Washington, D.C. to be stationed at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital. There, as a member of the JAG Corps, he will provide legal assistance to wounded soldiers to help ensure they obtain the benefits they are entitled to receive.

This deployment is the latest installment in Driscoll’s commitment to the armed service and country.

“If you can believe it, I was commissioned during the Carter administration,” in 1980 to be exact, Driscoll said. For the next eight years he was a naval aviator – a backseat F-14 operator. After his eight years of active duty, he joined the Navy reserves and enrolled in law school.

In 2001, he was recruited to the JAG (judge advocate general) Corps, the legal arm of the US military.

“If you want to fly jets the place to do it is the Navy, if you want to be a lawyer the place to do it in the Army,” Driscoll said. In one fell swoop he went from being an aviator to JAG lawyer and from the Navy to the Army. He still proudly wears a set of wings indicating his naval service on his Army uniform.
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Lt. Dan Driscoll mobilized to Walter Reed