Comments on: Felons and guns

By: beerslurpy

beerslurpy — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 00:31:29 +0000

No, the 9th is being consistent. It takes either an en banc review or a supreme court decision to overturn their existing anti-gun opinions like silvieria et al.

By: htom

htom — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:15:02 +0000

They go so far as to say that there is some — not much, but some — reason to believe that his possession was indeed innocent but then reject the requested instruction. One can only imagine that they fear that the jury on a retrial might believe him.

By: Phelps

Phelps — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:09:43 +0000

I have to disagree on the opinion. This was an instruction to a fact question, and there should have been no danger to including it. This was an affirmative defense, which means that he would have to prove that it was more likely than not that this was an innocent possession. That’s a tall hill to climb. Do I think it was a good defense? No. Do I think it would have prevailed? No, because it was indeed a spurious argument.

But that is for you and me to decide as jurors, not the judge. They should have included the instruction, let the jury laugh its ass off at the idea that was was just fixin to take it to the po-pos when he got popped, swear to gawd, and convict him. With a defense that weak, it is stupid — and dangerous to our liberty — to not send it to the jury.

By: Austin Mike

Austin Mike — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:08:08 +0000

Just read the opinion and have to disagree. The 9th decided that a spurious argument for the defense, supported only by the assertion of an intent by the defendent, asserted only after the defendent was informed he was being actively sought for a crime fo rwhich his only possible defense was the acceptance of his assertion, without any other corroboration, was not a reason for changing either existing precedent nor for rewriting the common reading of the text of a law. While the reasoning seemed rather roundabout to me, the decision respects existing precedent and seems sound to me.

Of course, assuming “the 9th is stupid” is a default position that will win most bets about the decisions of the 9th.