United States v. Vandelinder

I dissent. The military judge erred in excluding evidence of the accused’s good military character and lawfulness because those character traits were pertinent to the offenses charged.

Military Rule of Evidence (MRE) 404(a)(1) provides that evidence of a pertinent trait of the character of the accused is admissible to prove that he acted in conformity therewith on a particular occasion. The basic issue is whether the character trait in question would make any fact of consequence to the determination of the case more or less probable than it would be without the evidence of the trait. United…