[§124A-74]  Depositions.  (a)  At anytime after charges have been signed, as provided in section 124A-51, any partymay take oral or written depositions unless an authority competent to convene acourt-martial for the trial of those charges forbids it for good cause.  If adeposition is to be taken before charges are referred for trial, such anauthority may designate commissioned officers to represent the prosecution andthe defense and may authorize those officers to take the deposition of anywitness.

(b)  The party at whose instance a depositionis to be taken shall give to every other party reasonable written notice of thetime and place for taking the deposition.

(c)  Depositions may be taken before andauthenticated by any military or civil officer authorized by the laws of theState or by the laws of the place where the deposition is taken to administeroaths.

(d)  A duly authenticated deposition taken uponreasonable notice to the other parties, so far as otherwise admissible underthe rules of evidence, may be read in evidence before any court-martial or inany proceeding before a court of inquiry, if it appears:

(1)  That the witness resides or is beyond the countyin which the court-martial or court of inquiry is ordered to sit;

(2)  That the witness by reason of death, age,sickness, bodily infirmity, imprisonment, military necessity, nonamenability toprocess, or other reasonable cause, is unable or refuses to appear and testifyin person at the place of trial or hearing; or

(3)  That the present whereabouts of the witness isunknown. [L 1982, c 171, pt of §2]