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FEATURE ARTICLE |
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Limitless Motions In Limine...
Terry Bressi Website: Checkpoint USA Blog: Roadblock Revelations Date: 06-06-2012 Subject: Criminal Justice System What's interesting to note in the Motions in limine filed in this
case is that we (the plaintiff) filed a single 4-page motion with the
court dealing specifically with exclusion of hearsay testimony & any
issues not directly related to the specific issues to be adjudicated at
trial. The defendant's on the other hand submitted nine Motions in
limine with fourteen separate exhibits, not including the various tables
of content. The breadth of the exclusions sought by the defendant's in their
motions is quite extensive and covers everything from officer training
(or lack thereof) to clear evidence of harassment and intimidation
visited on the plaintiff by the defendants after the initial checkpoint incident from December of 2002. While it's quite understandable why the
defendant's wouldn't want such information to come to light during
trial, the attempt to exclude it is clearly designed to undermine the
foundation for the defendant's illegal & unethical actions
throughout the evolution of this case. This has also been a real eye opener to me regarding 'legal'
mechanisms available to litigants to not only prevent a jury from
hearing the whole story but to cherry pick facts right out of the flow
of events directly pertinent to the case at hand. While some may argue
these legal mechanisms are available to both sides in a legal dispute,
the truth of the matter is government prosecutors and government
defendants more often than not receive the lions share of the benefits
associated with such 'legal' wrangling. Regardless, it's clear to me
that juries rarely are afforded an opportunity to judge the facts of a
case based upon "the whole truth". Rather, a jury gets to hear only the
"truth" that a judge ultimately allows them to hear. Note - at the time of this writing, no ruling has been made
regarding the Motions in limine filed in this case so the commentary
above is general in nature. Regarding the Motions in limine filed in this case, you'll find
links to all of them below along with responses filed by both parties.
The number appearing in front of the link is the court docket number for
that motion. Some of the motions have attachments associated with them
and appear below their respective motions. While there are a lot of documents associated with this particular
aspect of the case, each one is relatively short in length and worth the
read. Especially if you're interested in seeing why it is juries rarely
have an opportunity to hear the whole story regarding government
misconduct/malfeasance in our modern day judicial system: |
