39-6-42 - Depositions -- Procedure.
39-6-42. Depositions -- Procedure.
(1) After charges have been signed under Section 39-6-23, any party may take oral orwritten depositions unless the military judge hearing the case, or if the case is not being heard, anauthority competent to convene a military court for the trial of those charges prohibits thedepositions for good cause.
(2) The party at whose instance a deposition is to be taken shall give to every other partyreasonable written notice of the time and place for taking the deposition.
(3) Depositions may be taken before and authenticated by any military or civil officerauthorized under state law or the law of the jurisdiction where the deposition is taken toadminister oaths.
(4) An authenticated deposition, taken upon reasonable notice to the other parties, may beread in evidence, to the extent it is admissible under the rules of evidence, before any militarycourt or any proceeding before a court of inquiry, if it appears to the court:
(a) the witness resides or is beyond the state in which the military court or court ofinquiry is ordered to sit, or beyond the distance of 100 miles from the location of the trial orhearing;
(b) the witness due to death, age, illness, bodily infirmity, imprisonment, militarynecessity, nonamenability to process, or other reasonable cause, is unable or refuses to appear andtestify in person at the location of the trial or hearing;
(c) the present location of the witness is unknown; or
(d) the deposition was taken in the physical presence of the accused.
Amended by Chapter 15, 1989 General Session