⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces hears United States versus Askins, a case involving stolen military explosives and domestic violence. Askins was an Army explosives-disposal technician in Alaska who admitted taking military C-four. Prosecutors brought charges years later, and he pleaded guilty to the theft as part of a broader court-martial. He contested separate charges involving an attack on his wife after she asked for a separation. Trial testimony described him assaulting her by a dog kennel, then attacking her again near the back door as she tried to leave. The Army appeals court upheld the theft conviction but combined two of the domestic-violence convictions into one. Askins will argue that the theft prosecution exceeded the ordinary five-year deadline, and that he never knowingly gave up the right to invoke it. The government will rely on a wartime exception that suspends that deadline, pointing to American operations in Afghanistan. It will also seek to restore the separate domestic-violence convictions, arguing that the assaults can be punished separately. Listen for two recurring questions: what counts as wartime for an old theft charge, and when repeated violence amounts to one offense or more than one.

United States v. Zackery J. Askins (No. 26-0002/AR) — United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, argued May 19, 2026.