What you fail to understand is that his case was getting no where after Judge Lind denied him the right to discovery as well as the right to call witnesses in his defense.
The only option left to him was to have the case reviewed in appeal as required by article 66 of the UCMJ.
There were two ways to do that, one would be go through the complete court martial process which could take several years (By The way the Haditha Marines still have not completed their court Martials)and the other was to plead guilty and speed up automatic appeal process
The military justice system is quite different from criminal or civil courts in that it does have an automatic appeals process built into it to protect totally innocent individuals from over zealous commanders who can sometimes bend the rules and regulations to achieve their desired results.
Judge Lind’s actions in preventing the eligibility argument from being heard denied Lakin the very core of his argument and the sum of his defense.
It was not her job to do so.
In all these eligibility cases there is a commonality.
No One can legally question Obama’s eligibility or access his original birth certificate even if as in this case the questioning Obama’s eligibility means a prison sentence.
If that doesn’t bother you in the least then your American soul is dead.
It most likely comes down to the secret meeting at SCOTUS with eight judges present on January 14, 2009 making ALL records out of reach “permanently”, including for Lt.Col. Lakin!
That meeting was “telegraphed” downline to lower courts with Thomas’ “Evading” comment. Then Jack Maskall took care of Congress, including the first “birthers” Hill/Bill!!
The Dung Head Media took care of the “sheeple” to silenced them, including Rush and other “Conservative”(?) talking heads, that very suddenly treated this issue like the Jews treated the people with leprosy at Jesus’ time, and NOBODY have standing!!!
And what you ignore is the fact that discovery is not a fishing expedition. Lakin was entitled to all the evidence necessary to defend against the charges he was facing. Obama's eligibility had nothing to do with that since the authority that Lakin's superior officers had was not dependent on who was president, and their orders did not rely on the eligibility of the commander-in-chief in order to be lawful.
The only option left to him was to have the case reviewed in appeal as required by article 66 of the UCMJ.
Which may or may not be true. Appeal is automatic depending on the sentence imposed. However, since Lakin pleaded guilty to most of the charges then even if he's convicted on the missing movement charge it may not rise to the level of an automatic appellate review. He can request it, of course. But I believe that it could be denied.
There were two ways to do that, one would be go through the complete court martial process which could take several years (By The way the Haditha Marines still have not completed their court Martials)and the other was to plead guilty and speed up automatic appeal process.
And that may wind up being as ill-conceived as his original actions were.
Judge Linds actions in preventing the eligibility argument from being heard denied Lakin the very core of his argument and the sum of his defense.
And her actions were on solid legal grounds, based on her written decision and by Lakin's on plea of guilty. I don't see that as grounds to overturn.
It was not her job to do so.
Yes, it was.
No One can legally question Obamas eligibility or access his original birth certificate even if as in this case the questioning Obamas eligibility means a prison sentence.
That's not entirely true either. McCain most likely could have. But he didn't.
If that doesnt bother you in the least then your American soul is dead.
A lot of things bother me. Obama bothers me. So do people who commit offenses against good order and discipline like Lakin did.