tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34853720.post3808909560755851631..comments2023-08-24T10:39:23.460-04:00Comments on CAAFlog: CAAF holds that TC's propensity argument was improper but didn't create plain errorDwight Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11657981110237418710noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34853720.post-10508316512294328352009-01-21T06:43:00.000-05:002009-01-21T06:43:00.000-05:00The case that JOC refers to is US v. Diffoot at 54...The case that JOC refers to is US v. Diffoot at 54 MJ 149. CCA got that one right - finding no plain error. CAAF (3-2) got it wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34853720.post-22321296760166423442009-01-16T12:27:00.000-05:002009-01-16T12:27:00.000-05:00I notice the Apprendi/Booker fans have been slow t...I notice the Apprendi/Booker fans have been slow to comment on the Supreme Court's recent decision in Oregon v. Ice, No. 07–901 (S. Ct. Jan. 14, 2009) declining to extend this line of cases to a state statute that assigns to judges, rather than to juries, the finding of facts necessary to the imposition of consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences for multiple offenses, as the common law generally entrusted such decisions to the judge's unfettered discretion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34853720.post-58797322979896850002009-01-16T09:44:00.000-05:002009-01-16T09:44:00.000-05:00I think argument is the one place where the plain ...I think argument is the one place where the plain error rule should be vigorously endforced because I think argument is the one area in a court-martial where you really "have to be there" and it's nearly impossible to understand hiow a sentence is said by reading the cold record.<BR/><BR/>I was in the gallery when one of my colleages referred to a car thief (who was being tried in absentia) and his co-conspirators as "amigos" during argument. The case got bounced on appeal on the grounds that this statement wa sa reference to the accused's ethnicity (ironically, the accused confessed to me when he was caught and returned to the brig, and voluntarily testified against his co-conspirator with no deal -- I wrote a clemency letter for him and sent it to appellate defense counsel).<BR/><BR/>Nobody in the courtroom would have taken the TC's statement as an ethnic reference -- in context, it was a mere colloquialism for friends, cohorts, etc., like I might call my friends my "compadres." But on the record all of that context is lost.John O'Connorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014476389355562158noreply@blogger.com