Military court-martials

In 1987 a marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA was acquitted of the wrongful use of cocaine in a military court-martial, U.S. v LCpl Steven M. Piccolo. A positive urinalysis for cocaine metabolites had been obtained a negative hair analysis was submitted to refute this information. The military judge refused to admit into evidence the negative hair test results. 

Hair test results have been submitted as evidence in child custody cases, military court-martials, adoption and probation revocation proceedings, and unemployment compensation cases in the U.S. courts. Preemployment hair testing has been upheld as a legitimate component of a drug-free work environment plan. 

John A. Bingham, Special Judge Advocate, "Trial of the Conspirators for the Assassination of President Lincoln Delivered June 2-28, 1865, before the Military Commission of the Court Martial of the Lincoln Conspirators," War Department Records, Section Monograph 2257, Official Transcript. 

Ironically, the first recorded 20th century use of solanaceae in a military situation occurred in Hanoi, French Indo-China (later known as North Vietnam) on 27 June 1908. On that day, two hundred French soldiers were poisoned by datura in their evening meal. One of the intoxicated soldiers saw ants on his bed, a second fled to a tree to escape from an hallucinated tiger and a third took aim at birds in the sky. The delirious troops were soon discovered and all recovered after medical attention. Two indigenous non-commissioned officers and an artilleryman were later convicted by courts-martial of plotting with ex-river pirates who had been influenced by "Chinese reformer agitators. 10,11... 

Sir John Hotham had been parliamentary governor of Hull from January 1642. In April he refused to let the king enter the town - a great blow to the royalist cause. But he and his son John defected to the royalists at the lowest ebb of parliament s military fortunes, in March 1643. They were captured in June by parliament, court-martialled, and condemned to death. They were finally executed in January 1645. 

Under martial law, however, taking hostages in order to ensure that the inhabitants of the occupied territory obey the orders of the military government is permitted by the laws of warfare. Such hostages may be tried in court, and even sentenced to death. 

We have never forgotten that our friends in the Japanese-American community of Hawaii were largely exempt from that outrageous action. Of the 185,000 people of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii at the time, fewer than 2,000 were taken into custody. But all of them were placed under martial law and denied their basic constitutional rights, an action struck down in 1946 by the Supreme Court. The loyal cooperation of the Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry with military and defense authorities more than justified the decision to permit most of them to stay. And it underscored the injustice of the treatment of the West Coast population. 

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