If Lakin’s defense attorney felt that Judge Lind was wrong on the law, he would not have convinced Lakin to plead guilty.
Note, howevr, that Lakin plead not guilty to the charge of missing movement. Perhaps, he did so because his attorney intends to argue upon appeal that the Judge was wrong on the law and that the superior who issued the order didn’t have the authority to issue it and/or that Lakin didn’t have a duty to obey it. We’ll have to see why he plead not guilty on that one.
Puckett argued the technicality that Lakin could have taken another means of transportation to Atlanta, but witness 5 for the government introduced Lakin’s motive believing Obama was not Constitutionally qualified. Because the prosecution did not control their witness, the Defense could bring in any appeal the question of Obama’s eligibility if they choose to. This happened on day 1 of the trial and before the conviction. The government used witness 5’s testimony to help convict Lakin on the charge of missing movement. The Government messed up.
Based on the testimony that was given, it appears to me that the defense strategy on that charge was to argue that Lakin was not guilty because he hadn't been given an explicit order to be on that plane. That the process had been just informal enough that Lakin could justifiably say he hadn't consciously disobeyed a direct order.
That defense strategy ended up falling apart when the prosecution put on a witness who stated that she had given exactly that order to Lakin.