Dwight H. Sullivan is an American military officer and lawyer. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the Chief Defense Counsel for the

Office of Military Commissions The Guantanamo military commissions were established by President George W. Bush through a military order on November 13, 2001, to try certain non-citizen terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison. To date, there have been a total of eight ...

. In 2007, he became a civilian lawyer working for the Air Force doing death penalty defense appellate work. Sullivan is a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the

United States Marine Corps Reserve The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Corps Reserve is an expedit ...

. He is a graduate of the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

and the

University of Virginia School of Law The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 as part of his "academical village", and now ...

. Prior to his role in defending the Guantanamo Bay detainees he worked with the

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

office of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

Work on CAAFlog

Sullivan is the founder of CAAFlog, a blog devoted to current topics in U.S. military law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). CAAFlog derives the first part of its name from the acronym for the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF), an intermediate appellate court with jurisdiction over certain courts-martial in accordance with Article 67 of the UCMJ (Title 10, United States Code, Section 867). CAAFlog currently features over a dozen contributors with experience in the field of U.S. military law. In 2008, Sullivan spotted an error in the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision in ''

Kennedy v. Louisiana ''Kennedy v. Louisiana'', 554 U.S. 407 (2008), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which held that the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for a crim ...

.'' The court wrote that no U.S. federal jurisdiction authorized the death penalty for child rape, but Sullivan pointed out that this was not true because Congress had specifically authorized the death penalty for such offenses as part of the 2006 amendments to the UCMJ. The Supreme Court requested briefs on the issue and subsequently modified its opinion to address the error, but the court denied a rehearing and declined to alter its decision.

References

#
Duke Law Students, Professor Assist Guantanamo Defense Team: Law students will research and write briefs and help craft strategy for the military lawyers defending Guantanamo Bay detainees
''

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

'', November 11, 2005. # Caryn Tamber, Patriot Acts, Daily Record, July 22, 2007. # Caryn Tamber, Patriot Acts, Daily Record, July 22, 2007. #
Legal Row Erupts Over New Abu Ghraib Photos
'' antiwar.com'', July 26, 2005.
Article 67, UCMJ
#
'Blawgs' directory, Am. Bar Ass'n ''Journal''
#
Blogger Points Out Substantial Error in Supreme Court Decision, Am. Bar Ass'n ''Journal''
July 2, 2008. #

June 25, 2008. #
Kennedy v. Louisiana statement re denial of rehearing, 129 S.Ct. 1 (2008)
October 1, 2008. #

External links

CAAFlog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Dwight H. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American lawyers United States Marine Corps reservists United States Marine Corps colonels United States Air Force civilians American Civil Liberties Union people American military lawyers