Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Moussaoui Judge Rules Out Witnesses

Fox News reports: U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema has ruled testimony about aviation security measures would not be allowed during the rest of the trial. Prosecutors had said previously that testimony from aviation officials would comprise half their case.

Prosecutor Rob Spencer immediately told the judge the government objected to excluding all such testimony and exhibits and would consider appealing her ruling.

Judge Brinkema granted a request by the prosecutors to delay proceedings in the trial until Monday. The prosecutors sought the delay so they could consider whether to appeal.

Meanwhile, Carla J. Martin, Transportation Security Administration attorney whose conduct in sending emails to witnesses is in question, has retained attorney Roscoe Brown to represent her and has so far declined to answer questions.

Moussaoui case history from FindLaw.

Our previous report on this matter is here.

8 comments:

vnjagvet said...

Roscoe's got his work cut out for him.

brylun said...

You bet!

brylun said...

I expect the government to appeal Brinkema's exclusion of witnesses.

What's there to lose on appeal?

The appellate court could decide that a broader cross examination would be sufficient.

vnjagvet said...

She's been reversed before in this case. And it's the Fourth Circuit.

Charlie Martin said...

It may be a sign I'm watching the wrong sources, but everything I'd heard seemed to suggest this was pretty much open-and-shut: once the "tainting" was revealed, she had to exclude the tainted witnesses.

Do you really think they've got a chance on appeal?

Unknown said...

Why whould she compromise the case this way? It seems to me this man is going nowhere, so why do this?

vnjagvet said...

Grey:

Ms. Martin is not a "US Attorney" and therein lies the rub.

She is a TSA Attorney, and clearly had no trial training. Had she been a US Attorney, I am pretty confident she never would have done such a thing.

gumshoe said...

how does anyone know Martin
wasn't "bought"?

the agitprop of Moussaoui
getting off on a technicality
is fairly juicy stuff.