Missouri Laws 40.157 – Depositions authorized, when — procedure — exception — admitted into ..
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.
Terms Used In Missouri Laws 40.157
- 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.
- State: when applied to any of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" includes such district and territories. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
- 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.
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.