[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 32, Volume 5]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 32CFR720.23]

[Page 218]
 
                       TITLE 32--NATIONAL DEFENSE
 
                   CHAPTER VI--DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
 
PART 720_DELIVERY OF PERSONNEL; SERVICE OF PROCESS AND SUBPOENAS; 
PRODUCTION OF OFFICIAL RECORDS--Table of Contents
 
        Subpart B_Service of Process and Subpoenas Upon Personnel
 
Sec. 720.23  Naval prisoners as witnesses or parties in civilian courts.

    (a) Criminal actions. When Federal or State authorities desire the 
attendance of a naval prisoner as a witness in a criminal case, they 
should submit a written request for such person's attendance to the 
Judge Advocate General. The civilian authority should include the 
following averments in its request:
    (1) That the evidence to be derived from the prisoner's testimony is 
unavailable from any other source:
    (2) That the civilian authority will provide adequate security 
arrangements for the prisoner and assume responsibility for the prisoner 
while he is in its custody; and
    (3) that the civilian authority will assume all costs of 
transporting the prisoner from the brig, of maintaining that prisoner 
while in civilian custody, and of returning the prisoner to the brig 
from which he was removed.

The civilian authority should also include in its request an estimate of 
the length of time the prisoner's services will be required, and should 
specify the mode of transport by which it intends to return the 
prisoner. Upon receipt of such a request, authority by the Judge 
Advocate General will be given, in a proper case, for the production of 
the requested naval prisoner in court without resort to a writ of habeas 
corpus ad testificandum (a writ which requires the production of a 
prisoner to testify before a court of competent jurisdiction).
    (b) Civil actions. The Department of the Navy will not authorize the 
attendance of a naval prisoner in a Federal or State court, either as a 
party or as a witness, in private litigation pending before such a 
court. The deposition of a naval prisoner may be taken in such a case, 
subject to reasonable conditions or limitations imposed by the command 
concerned.