CORRESPONDENTS

Marisa Taylor

National Reconnaissance Office hasn’t told police of crime confessions

The nation’s spy satellite agency has been extracting polygraph confessions to crimes such as child molestation but local law enforcement agencies aren’t always told so that they can investigate. | 07/10/12 10:18:36 By - By Marisa Taylor

Office of Special Counsel investigating Army Criminal Investigation Lab

A federal agency in charge of investigating whistleblower complaints is scrutinizing the military’s top crime lab, already troubled by sloppy evidence handling and botched analysis of DNA. | 05/04/12 16:13:10 By - By Marisa Taylor

Army threatens to fire whistleblower for talking to McClatchy

The military's embattled crime lab is trying to fire an outspoken whistleblower who's spotlighted its problems. Earlier this month, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory warned its firearms branch chief, Donald Mikko, in a memo of its plans to fire him, in part for talking to a McClatchy reporter. | 03/19/12 17:53:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Marine's sex assault conviction tossed as prosecution questioned

An appeals court has thrown out the sexual assault conviction of a Marine in yet another example of the growing legal questions sparked by the U.S. military's newly aggressive stance on rape. | 03/08/12 18:25:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Army probes crime lab workers after critical news reports

Stung by critical stories about their crime laboratory, officials at Army Criminal Investigation Command recently questioned lab employees for hours and scrutinized personal phone records looking for contacts with reporters. | 02/03/12 17:22:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Were Army crime lab problems withheld from some defendants?

Did the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory properly notify hundreds of defendants about potential problems that involved a different lab analyst? Some attorneys fear that the answer is no; what happened with Army Staff Sgt. Kirk Holcombe, they worry, may be a recurring problem. | 12/29/11 17:59:00 By - Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor

Congress tries again to get military sexual assault laws right

Congress is quietly giving itself a do-over on the military sexual assault law it botched the last time around. The changes included in a massive defense bill attempt to correct Congress' own mistakes, which baffled military judges called "arguably absurd," "almost incomprehensible" and ultimately "unconstitutional." | 12/13/11 15:38:00 By - Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor

Bureaucracy has blossomed in military's war on rape

Under the political gun, the Pentagon has bulked up its anti-rape campaign far more than many people realize. It's expensive, aggressive and imperfect. Contrary to public and political impression, an extensive McClatchy review of military sexual assault finds plenty of Pentagon and congressional action. Some works. Some falls short. Some goes too far, in a legal arena that's notorious for its complications. | 11/28/11 15:04:00 By - Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor

Military's newly aggressive rape prosecution has pitfalls

By the time Marine Staff Sgt. Jamie Walton went to trial on rape charges, his accuser had changed her story several times. A military lawyer who evaluated the case told Walton's commander they didn't have enough evidence to go to trial on sexual assault charges. The prosecutor even agreed. But the Marines ignored the advice. | 11/28/11 14:58:00 By - Marisa Taylor and Chris Adams

Mix of booze and sex can spell trouble for military

It's often the toxic ingredient of a military rape allegation: binge drinking. Many times, the woman knows the man and was drinking alcohol with him. Lots of it. As a result, she says she doesn't remember the entire encounter because she was drunk. Determining what happened can be a challenge for the most experienced lawyer, let alone a jury. | 11/28/11 15:08:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Missing evidence is among military crime lab's new woes

The Army's crime lab, already beleaguered by multiple internal investigations, has something new to explain: missing evidence. Examiners misplaced evidence in a possible suicide investigation and an assault case. Meanwhile, two former senior employees of the lab's high-profile forensics testing in Afghanistan have accused their bosses of firing them in August in retaliation for complaining about mismanagement. | 10/24/11 15:30:00 By - Marisa Taylor

'Flawed' new rape law roils military justice system

Six years ago, Congress tried cracking down on rape in the military. Prompted by disturbing reports of sexual assaults in military academies and war zones, lawmakers rewrote the rules. They wanted to protect victims and help prosecutors. Now it's clear that the effort backfired. | 09/21/11 15:25:00 By - Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor

Study: Racial disparities taint military's use of death penalty

Ten of the 16 men whom the military has sentenced to death in the last 27 years share another common characteristic: They're all minorities. | 08/28/11 00:01:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Many death sentences in U.S. military overturned

Of the 16 men sentenced to death since the military overhauled its system in 1984, 10 have been taken off death row. The military's appeals courts have overturned most of the sentences, not because of a change in heart about the death penalty or questions about the men's guilt, but because of mistakes made at every level of the military's judicial system. | 08/28/11 00:01:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Military capital cases deserve better defense, critics say

When military jurors sentenced former Marine Lance Cpl. Ronnie Curtis to death, they had every reason to believe that he deserved to be executed. No one disputed that he'd stabbed and killed his superior officer and the officer's wife inside their home. The only real question was why. | 08/28/11 00:01:00 By - Marisa Taylor

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