Article 32 Hearings

In the military, before any allegation can proceed to a General Courts-Martial, the government’s evidence must be presented to in an article 32 hearing in order to determine whether there are at least reasonable grounds to forward the charges to GCM. Unlike in many civilian systems, the Article 32 preliminary hearing in the military offers a valuable opportunity for the military’s accused to test the government’s evidence and present defense evidence, either to seek a dismissal of the charge before trial or to better prepare for an upcoming trial, if one is unavoidable.

In this recent case dismissal, the groundwork for much of our defense was completed at the Article 32 stage, where multiple witnesses were produced for the defense, sworn affidavits were presented from our initial witness interviews, the alleged victim was cross-examined for several hours of testimony on the record, and military character witnesses were called on behalf of the accused.