Is it still disparaging the character of Michael Brown for the Ferguson Police to have released the strong arm robbery video committed by Brown prior to his killing - even though the video would probably be admissible in a federal trial against Officer Wilson? #mikebrown #ferguson Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), which allows “prior bad acts” (such as robberies) to be admitted into evidence to demonstrate “motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident.” White says that he thinks the strong-arm robbery — which Brown committed about 10 minutes before the shooting — “could conceivably relate to Brown’s state of mind.” A person who commits a robbery and then leaves the store — after shoving the proprietor — would quite likely expect that a 911 call went out to the police and that the police would be looking for him. Then, when approached by the police, it would be quite likely for that robber to be concerned that the police would be likely to arrest him. All of that would quite clearly go to “motive” and “intent” and the like under Rule 404(b) and would therefore quite likely be relevant and admissible under Rule 404(b).
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 15:42:44 +0000