Sec. 548. Effective prosecution and defense in courts-martial
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/bill/114/s/2943/pap/section-548·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Each Secretary concerned shall carry out a program to ensure that— trial counsel and defense counsel detailed to prosecute or defend a court-martial have sufficient experience and knowledge to effectively prosecute or defend the case; or there is adequate supervision and oversight of the trial counsel and the defense counsel so detailed to ensure effective prosecution and defense in the court-martial. Each Secretary concerned shall establish and use a system of skill identifiers for purposes of identifying judge advocates with skill and experience in military justice proceedings in order to ensure that judge advocates with skills identified through such skill identifiers are assigned to supervise and oversee less experienced judge advocates in the prosecution and defense in courts-martial when required under a program carried out pursuant to subsection (a).
In addition to judge advocates assignable pursuant to paragraph (1), a Secretary concerned may assign the function of supervising and overseeing prosecution or defense in courts-martial as described in that paragraph to civilian employees of the military department concerned or the Department of Homeland Security, as applicable, who have extensive litigation expertise. A judge advocate or civilian employee assigned to supervise and oversee the prosecution or defense in a court-martial pursuant to this subsection is not required to be detailed to the case, but must be reasonably available for consultation during court-martial proceedings.
In this section The term judge advocate has the meaning given that term in section 801(13) of title 10, United States Code (article 1(13) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice). The term Secretary concerned means the following: The Secretary of the Army, with respect to judge advocates and courts-martial of the Army. The Secretary of the Navy, with respect to judge advocates and courts-martial of the Navy and the Marine Corps. The Secretary of the Air Force, with respect to judge advocates and courts-martial of the Air Force.
The Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to judge advocates of the Coast Guard and courts-martial of the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy.