U.S. v. Taylor, 53 M.J. 195

Core Criminal Law Subjects: Evidence: Other Acts

1. evidence of other crimes, acts, or wrongs must be offered for some purpose other than to demonstrate the accused’s predisposition to crime and thereby to suggest that the factfinder infer that he is guilty because he is predisposed to commit similar offenses; such evidence may be admitted if it: (1) reasonably supports a finding that the accused committed the crime, wrong, or act; (2) makes a fact of consequence more or less probable; and (3) possesses probative value that is not substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice
2. accused’s pretrial statement contained references to minor criminal conduct, brandishing a knife at his roommate, arming himself with a knife in response to a disagreement, and firing a weapon at a person before he joined the Marine Corps; military judge did not abuse his discretion by not redacting this other acts evidence from accused’s pretrial statement where: blanking out an entire paragraph might invite the members to speculate and infer something adverse to the accused; the military judge provided cautionary instructions; appellant offered nothing to show that the use of the disputed evidence was not limited by effective instructions; and the members may be presumed to have followed the limiting instructions

Core Criminal Law Subjects: Witnesses: Confrontation

1. appellant was not denied his right to confront witnesses against him where agent who testified about admissions made by appellant was present throughout entire interview and the record showed that he was testifying based on his own personal knowledge of the admissions made during that interview

Core Criminal Law Subjects: Burdens, Standards, Presumptions, Inferences: Appellate Presumptions, Inferences

1. absent evidence to the contrary, Court of Appeals may presume that members follow a military judge’s instructions

Trial Stages: Merits: Instructions › Generally

1. a curative instruction is the preferred remedy for correcting error when the court members have heard inadmissible evidence, as long as the instruction is adequate to avoid prejudice to the accused

Trial Stages: Merits: Mistrial

1. a mistrial is a drastic remedy that should be used with great caution, under urgent circumstances, and for plain and obvious reasons; declaring a mistrial rests in the discretion of the military judge when manifestly necessary in the interest of justice because of circumstances arising during the proceedings which cast substantial doubt upon the fairness of the proceedings
2. military judge did not abuse his discretion in denying mistrial based upon objection to trial counsel basing his opening statement upon inadmissible evidence that gang members would dress in a certain way to kill someone; military judge gave cautionary instructions, defense counsel did not object to content of those instructions, the members are presumed to follow that instruction, and that presumption was not rebutted

Trial Stages: Sentence and Punishment: Instructions

1. instructions accompanying the admission of evidence given at the time of introduction do not vanish from the record; they follow the exhibit and limit its value throughout the trial

Trial Stages: Appeals: Standards of Review, Burdens, etc.

1. military judge’s ruling on admissibility of evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion, and will not be overturned on appeal unless it is arbitrary, fanciful, clearly unreasonable, or clearly erroneous
2. the decision to grant a mistrial lies within the discretion of the military judge; an appellate court must not reverse the decision absent a clear abuse of that discretion