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By Shari Allison

A few 10th Circuit cases, including a defense victory in a published case!U.S. v. Goodman, 2011 WL 258282 (1/28/11) (Okl.) (Published) - Where PTSD insanity was the defense, the d. ct. reversibly erred when it limited the testimony of lay witnesses to their observations immediately before the robberies and precluded lay opinions on the defendant's sanity. The defendant preserved his claims because he laid out what the witnesses would testify about and the d. ct. ruled unequivocally pretrial. Lay witnesses have broad latitude in insanity trials. The proffered evidence was not too stale where the oldest evidence was 3 years old and all were part of a continuous pattern. The exclusion of that evidence was not harmless, since it compromised the defendant's ability to persuade the jury and affected counsel's defense strategy...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on February 01, 2011 (boomark / email).