Continuity mistake: When Markinson gets in Lt. Caffey's car you can see his baseball glove on the back window ledge. Then in subsequent shots the glove sometimes missing.
Continuity mistake: During the scene at Gitmo while they are having lunch, the opening camera shot shows Col. Jessup and Lt. Kendrick sitting beside each other, almost touching shoulders. But in the next shot from behind Jessup, there is about a 2 or 3 foot space on his left side.
Continuity mistake: When Kaffee drives up to the newsstand at night and buys his magazine and chats with the news vendor, his tie knot is undone down to the second button on his shirt. When he returns to his car and is startled by Markinson in the back seat, his tie is undone only a bit past the first button, much higher than the previous shot. This is largely due, Director Rob Reiner explains, to the fact that part of the scene was shot in D.C. and part of the scene was shot in L.A.
Answer: An autopsy can show what physically caused a death, but not necessarily what led up to it. Kaffee is trying to prove that there could be more than one reason for the marine's death.