United States v. Kerr, 51 M.J. 40

Trial Stages: Appeals: Harmless / Prejudicial Error

1. prejudice from an erroneous evidentiary ruling, either admitting government evidence or excluding defense evidence, is evaluated by weighing: (1) the strength of the government’s case; (2) the strength of the defense case; (3) the materiality of the evidence in question; and, (4) the quality of the evidence in question
2. admission of extrinsic evidence of misconduct offered to rebut evidence of good military character was harmless error where: (1) the government’s evidence was strong and corroborated; (2) the defense presented no evidence to directly contradict the victim; (3) the extrinsic evidence in issue directly contradicted evidence of good military character and attacked the major thrust of the defense case; (4) the quality of the extrinsic evidence was graphic, but some was of questionable credibility; and, (5) the rebuttal evidence could have been presented in the form of opinion to rebut good military character so long as specific acts were not described
3. appellant was not prejudiced by any possible spillover effect from uncharged acts testimony where: (1) the uncharged acts were dissimilar in nature to the charged conduct and too removed in time to be admissible under MRE 404(b); (2) a crafted and detailed limiting instruction prevented the uncharged acts from being considered for any purpose other than to rebut evidence of good military character; and, (3) the record negates any possibility of spillover in that appellant was convicted of only one of three similar charged acts of misconduct