United States v. Clarke

For the reasons stated in Part II of Judge Sullivan’s opinion, I agree that appellant’s conviction should be affirmed. However, I disagree with the treatment given to the underlying issue, which is determining whether successful completion of the Army retraining program constitutes an “equivalent procedure” to other forms of declaring that a person is rehabilitated.

First of all and for the record, I believe that Mil.R.Evid. 609(c)(1), Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 1984, is founded upon confused reasoning. If the basic premise is that a person who has been convicted of a felony is…