Major Harry Schmidt wins

Schmidt wins
Maj. Harry Schmidt has won a key pretrial battle as the Air Force
is about to court-martial him in connection with the mistaken bombing
deaths of four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002. The Court of
Appeals for the Armed Forces this week overruled the decision of the
trial judge, Col. Mary Boone. She had ruled that classified
information from Maj. Schmidt to his attorney, Charles Gittins, must
be cleared by the prosecution. Mr. Gittins objected, arguing this gave
government attorneys control over his defense strategy. An Air Force
appeals court agreed with Col. Boone. But the higher court disagreed,
reversing the judge's opinion. The court said the judge misinterpreted
a military rule on the sharing of classified information. The appeals
opinion read, "The rule does not require an accused, without benefit
of his own counsel, to engage in adversarial litigation with opposing
counsel as a precondition to discussing with defense counsel
potentially relevant information which the accused already has
personal knowledge of based on his prior authorized access as part of
his military duties." The court added, "The government must also
respect the important role of the attorney-client relationship in
maintaining the fairness and integrity of the military justice
system." On a second matter, the Air Force had been denying classified
information to Mr. Gittins. The appeals court ruled that issue was
moot, since the prosecution lifted the prohibition based on the
lawyer's security clearance as a Marine Corps officer. The court is
made up of five civilian judges, appointed by the president and
confirmed by the Senate. Maj. Schmidt is charged with dereliction of
duty for dropping a bomb from his F-16 on a Canadian live-fire
exercise that he mistook for enemy antiaircraft barrages.