Cobra469
Regular Member
imported post
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/90900364.html
Alan Klebig hung dozens of squirrel tails and shiny CDs around his Watertown yard, monitored it with security cameras and kept containers of unlabeled caustic chemicals around his house.
He also had a couple of dozen guns, including a loaded shotgun he kept by the front door, which had a sign that read, "Nothing here is worth dying for."
But while he may have been considered eccentric, a federal appeals court has ruled that a prosecutor and trial judge let way too much character evidence affect the outcome of his trial, at which a jury convicted Klebig, 52, of knowingly possessing an unregistered rifle and silencer.
In an entertaining but critical opinion, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently laid out how the prejudicial errors occurred, and why they reversed Klebig's conviction.
The gun at issue was an old .22-caliber rifle with a cut-off barrel and a broken stock. A man testified he had broken the stock hitting a raccoon over the head when hunting. "Apparently, the raccoon continued to climb out of a tree after (the witness) unloaded the clip into the raccoon," the ruling said. The man later sold the gun to Klebig's brother.
Klebig testified that he had inherited he gun from his father and thought it was a pistol. The barrel was 6 inches long.
The silencer was an oil filter that Klebig testified he was experimenting with as a flash suppressor on a shotgun, to help him kill raccoons at his mother's house. It was taped to another rifle when police investigating a neighbor dispute in 2005 found the weapons.
Hmmm.... Pay the $200 suppressor tax for an oil filter? Just curious if a flash suppressor would meet the criteria of a suppressor requiring such a tax stamp. Also Why this guy would care about suppressing a flash on a shotgun when shooting raccons. Is he scared of giving away his position to the rest of the coons? And if the oil filter was meant to be a silencer did he really think that it was going to make a difference?
Note the specific mention of his sign? Another good reason not to have such a bold sign when the crap hits the fan. They most definately wrote this in a manner that does nobody justice. Overturned for all the cheractor refrences and the media continues it. :banghead:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/90900364.html
Alan Klebig hung dozens of squirrel tails and shiny CDs around his Watertown yard, monitored it with security cameras and kept containers of unlabeled caustic chemicals around his house.
He also had a couple of dozen guns, including a loaded shotgun he kept by the front door, which had a sign that read, "Nothing here is worth dying for."
But while he may have been considered eccentric, a federal appeals court has ruled that a prosecutor and trial judge let way too much character evidence affect the outcome of his trial, at which a jury convicted Klebig, 52, of knowingly possessing an unregistered rifle and silencer.
In an entertaining but critical opinion, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently laid out how the prejudicial errors occurred, and why they reversed Klebig's conviction.
The gun at issue was an old .22-caliber rifle with a cut-off barrel and a broken stock. A man testified he had broken the stock hitting a raccoon over the head when hunting. "Apparently, the raccoon continued to climb out of a tree after (the witness) unloaded the clip into the raccoon," the ruling said. The man later sold the gun to Klebig's brother.
Klebig testified that he had inherited he gun from his father and thought it was a pistol. The barrel was 6 inches long.
The silencer was an oil filter that Klebig testified he was experimenting with as a flash suppressor on a shotgun, to help him kill raccoons at his mother's house. It was taped to another rifle when police investigating a neighbor dispute in 2005 found the weapons.
Hmmm.... Pay the $200 suppressor tax for an oil filter? Just curious if a flash suppressor would meet the criteria of a suppressor requiring such a tax stamp. Also Why this guy would care about suppressing a flash on a shotgun when shooting raccons. Is he scared of giving away his position to the rest of the coons? And if the oil filter was meant to be a silencer did he really think that it was going to make a difference?
Note the specific mention of his sign? Another good reason not to have such a bold sign when the crap hits the fan. They most definately wrote this in a manner that does nobody justice. Overturned for all the cheractor refrences and the media continues it. :banghead: