United States v. Evans

We all agree the law officer erred in denying defense counsel’s request for an out-of-court hearing on the admission of the accused’s pretrial statement. The question then is whether the error presents a fair risk that the accused was prejudiced by the erroneous ruling. It is at this point that we disagree.

The principal opinion implies that if accused accepts the adverse ruling and presents all the evidence on the issue available to him, he cannot be prejudiced; This broad implication is, in my opinion, contrary to United States v Lock, 13 USCMA 611, 33 CMR 143. There we held that the ruling…