Interesting fact and interesting rumor

["Sullivan, Dwight H CIV USAF AFLOA/JAJA" <Dwight.Sullivan@pentagon.af.mil>]

Interesting fact:  As you've probably seen, the President  has nominated a new judge for CAAF -- Kevin A. Ohlson, whose current job is heading DOJ's professional misconduct review unit.  Not a bad place for a judge considering the Wuterich case to be coming from.  (Of course, he probably won't be confirmed anytime soon, so he probably won't be a player on our writ appeal.  But in the event of a conviction and sentence qualifying for appellate review -- which hopefully will not occur -- he might be a very good judge on direct appeal.)

Interesting rumor:  I had previously heard that CAAF would operated as a 4-judge court until a new judge is seated.  But I've now heard a contrary rumor that Senior Judge Walter T. Cox III will sit with the court until a new judge is confirmed.  If that's true, I'm very happy.  Judge Cox comes from an earlier era at CAAF, when doing justice was considered more important than, say, rigidly enforcing a made-up filing deadline.  (Of course, Chief Judge Effron was on the right side in that case, but all-in-all, Judge Cox is likely to be less concerned with doctrinal matters and more concerned with basic fairness than Chief Judge Effron is -- not a slight against Chief Judge Effron, who is fabulous.)  So our odds just got a little better.  Hell, we might now have a 16% chance of some outcome other than a one-sentence denial without prejudice.  :- )

Semper Fi,
DHS


Dwight H. Sullivan
Acting Chief
Air Force Appellate Defense Division
(AFLOA/JAJA)
1500 West Perimeter Road, Suite 1100
Joint Base Andrews, MD 20762
240-612-4773
DSN:  612-4773
Fax:  240-612-5818