The charges ended a sharp debate within the Bush administration over whether Mr. Walker would be charged in a civilian court or in a military court-martial.
The basic constitutional rights of habeas corpus, a jury of peers, and a grand jury hearing before being charged, were not accorded those facing military court-martial.
That left only three members, the minimum needed to hold a commission - and two fewer than the number required to hear a felony case in a regular military court-martial.
This geographic fact becomes a central image in the film adaptation, which gracefully opens up the story of a military court-martial without allowing the tension to evaporate.
The doctor, Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, a former captain who is married with three children, was convicted in August by a military court-martial.
The way he made it sound, it would be treated as treason against the United States, punishable by either life imprisonment or by death after a closed military court-martial.
He'd faced Miller in the Old Bailey, Ryan remembered, not a military court-martial.
Cranston watched it all from behind his hooded eyes-it was a full-fledged and rigidly correct military court-martial.
Because of this, he was recalled to active duty so that he could be made to stand trial in a military court-martial.
Daily hearings, judicial inquiries, and military court-martials continued.