Texas Government Code 432.074 – Depositions
(a) At any time after charges have been signed, as provided in § 432.051, a party may take oral or written depositions unless the military judge, a court-martial without a military judge 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. 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.
(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.
Terms Used In Texas Government Code 432.074
- 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.
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Signed: includes any symbol executed or adopted by a person with present intention to authenticate a writing. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- 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.
- Written: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(c) Depositions may be taken before and authenticated by any military or civil officer authorized to administer oaths by laws of the state or by the laws of the place where the deposition is taken.
(d) A duly authenticated deposition taken on reasonable notice to the other parties, to the extent otherwise admissible under the rules of evidence, may be read in evidence before a military court or commission, or in a proceeding before a court of inquiry or military board, if it appears that:
(1) the witness resides or is beyond the state in which the court-martial or court of inquiry is ordered to sit, or more than 100 miles from the place of trial or hearing;
(2) the witness because 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) the present location of the witness is unknown.