Yep! Hard to find a more authoritative or binding legal entity than the “American Grand Jury”!
What this means is that these judges are ‘passing the hot potato’ along to what will eventually be SCOTUS.
I very glad, if that is really what they’re doing.
You have to ask yourself, what are they terrified of?
What was the evidence of misconduct they were trying to introduce in that case?
No one, NO ONE, wants Lakin to suceed more than I do. But this article is wrong. It discredits Lakin’s supporters to go barking up the wrong trees. The issue in the Castillo case was not about a general issue of the admissibility of evidence for the defense. It was a case of whether the prosecution could introduce evidence in a Military Justice matter against the defendant regarding uncharged criminal conduct, to demonstrate that the defendant had a predisposition to commit the charged offense. The rule at issue was MRE 404(b), which says:
Uncharged Misconduct.
MRE 404(b) Other crimes, wrongs, or acts. Evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that the person acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident provided that upon request by the accused, the prosecution in a criminal case shall provide reasonable notice in advance of trial, or during trial if the court excuses pretrial notice on good cause shown, of the general nature of any such evidence it intends to introduce at trial.
Now, this doesn’t mean there aren’t other evidence rules and cases applying evidence rules that suggest that Lakin should have been allowed to introduce evidence of 0’s eligibility. I’m only pointing out that this article is incorrect in asserting that Castillo shows that the Judge got this blatantly wrong in Lakin’s case.
C’mon. We pride ourselves on intelligent analysis, intellectual honesty, accurate information and truthful reporting. FReepers have made vital contributions in the media wars by being better than that. Go Lakin!!!
The courts have repeatedly and consistently deferred to the compelling need to maintain good order and discipline in the military, even when that required suppressing certain rights of soldiers.
On appeal, Lakin will run afoul of this judicial history and will fall short of his goal. His lawyer should have known this going in and should have warned him that his effort was a forlorn hope.
mrkd