Section 40.157

Title V MILITARY AFFAIRS AND POLICE

Chapter 40

Effective - 28 Aug 1984   

  40.157.  Depositions authorized, when — procedure — exception — admitted into evidence, when. — 1.  At any time after charges have been signed, as provided in section 40.108, any party may take oral or written depositions unless the military judge or an authority competent to convene a court-martial for the trial of those charges forbids it for good cause.  If a deposition is to be taken before charges are referred for trial, such an authority shall designate commissioned officers to represent the prosecution and the defense and may authorize those officers to take the deposition of any witness.

  2.  The party at whose instance a deposition is to be taken shall give to every other party reasonable written notice of the time and place for taking the deposition.

  3.  Depositions may be taken before and authenticated by any military or civil officer authorized by the laws of this state or by the laws of the place where the deposition is taken to administer oaths.

  4.  A duly authenticated deposition taken upon reasonable notice to the other parties, so far as otherwise admissible under the rules of evidence, may be read in evidence before any court-martial or in any proceeding before a court of inquiry, if it appears:

  (1)  That the witness is dead; or

  (2)  That the witness is out of the state and the witness' appearance cannot be obtained, unless it appears that the absence of the witness was procured by the party offering the deposition; or

  (3)  That the witness is unable to attend or testify because of sickness, infirmity, imprisonment, military necessity, age, or nonamenability to process, or other reasonable cause; or

  (4)  That the party offering the deposition has been unable to procure the attendance of the witness by subpoena or other process.

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(L. 1984 H.B. 1035 § 50)