(a)  At any time after charges have been signed, as provided in § 30-13-32, any party may take oral or written depositions unless 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, the authority may designate commissioned officers to represent the prosecution and the defense and may authorize those officers to take the deposition of any witness.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 30-13-52

  • Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Military: refers to any or all of the armed forces;
    (15) "Military court" means a court-martial, a court of inquiry, or a provost court;
    (16) "Officer" means commissioned or warrant officer;
    (17) "Rank" means the order of precedence among members of the state military forces;
    (18) "Shall" is used in an imperative sense;
    (19) "State judge advocate" means the commissioned officer on the staff of the adjutant general responsible for supervising military justice in the state military forces;
    (20) "State military forces" means the national guard of the state, as defined in 32 U. See Rhode Island General Laws 30-13-1
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.

(b)  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.

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

(d)  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 resides or is beyond the state in which the court-martial or court of inquiry is ordered to sit, or beyond the distance of one hundred (100) miles from the place of trial or hearing;

(2)  That the witness by reason of death, age, sickness, bodily infirmity, imprisonment, military necessity, nonamenability to process, or other reasonable cause, is unable or refuses to appear and testify in person at the place of trial or hearing; or

(3)  That the present whereabouts of the witness is unknown.

History of Section.
G.L. 1956, § 30-13-52; P.L. 1962, ch. 82, § 1.