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



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



(c)  Depositions may be taken before and
authenticated by any military or civil officer authorized by the laws of the
State or by the laws of the place where the deposition is taken to administer
oaths.



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



(1)  That the witness resides or is beyond the county
in 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 to
process, or other reasonable cause, is unable or refuses to appear and testify
in person at the place of trial or hearing; or



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