(a) At any time after charges have been signed as provided in section thirty of this article, any party may take oral or written depositions unless the military judge or summary court-martial officer hearing the case or, if the case is not being heard, an authority competent to convene a court-martial for the trial of those charges forbids it for good cause.

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 15-1E-49

  • 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 court: means a court-martial or a court of inquiry. See West Virginia Code 15-1E-1
  • military judge: means an official of a general or special court-martial detailed in accordance with section twenty-six of this article. See West Virginia Code 15-1E-1
  • officer: means a commissioned or warrant officer. See West Virginia Code 15-1E-1
  • State: means one of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U. See West Virginia Code 15-1E-1
  • 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 or, in the case of audiotape, videotape, digital image or file, or similar material, may be played in evidence before any military court, if it appears:

(1) That the witness resides or is beyond the state in which the court is ordered to sit, or beyond one hundred miles from the place of trial or hearing;

(2) That the witness by reason of death, age, sickness, bodily infirmity, imprisonment, military necessity, non amenability 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.