In U.S. v. Henderson, decided by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday, in an opinion by Judge R. Tideman Penland, Jr., joined by Judges LaJohnne Morris and James Arguelles, the court reversed defendant's conviction for rape of a 15-year-old; it's a long opinion, but here's a particularly interesting excerpt:
Before trial, the defense filed a motion to exclude Military Rule of Evidence (Mil. R. Evid.) 413 ["Similar crimes in sexual offense cases"] evidence of alleged sexual misconduct against MP (hereinafter referred to as "413 victim"), allegations that resulted in acquittal at an earlier general court-martial…. [T]he military judge denied the defense motion regarding the 413 victim, writing:
Other than the fact of acquittal and an assertion that the [appellant]['s] sworn statement to the police was in contradiction to [the 413 victim]'s report, no exculpatory evidence was presented to this Court for consideration of this matter. Despite the obvious reasons that this factor [intervening circumstances] may weigh against admissibility as asserted by the Defense, the Government argues that when considering that the charged offenses occurred after the acquittal, the [appellant's] tactics were emboldened and this factor weighs in favor of admissibility. The Court finds this factor to be neutral.…
