The_RANDy_Corporation
03-20-2001, 12:07 AM
By declaring the order to be "lawful" before trial, the judge fixed the case. No one disputed that Cpl. Perry refused the order. The judge essential ordered he would not be allowed to defend himself. Fair?
****
Mar 19, 2001 - 11:11 AM
Marine Loses Challenge to Vaccine Prosecution
By Anne Gearan
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Marine court-martialed for refusing to take the mandatory anthrax vaccine lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.
The high court, without comment, turned down the Marine's claim that the military prosecution violated his constitutional rights.
Lance Cpl. Matthew D. Perry challenged a pretrial ruling that the order requiring him to take the anthrax vaccination was lawful.
By deciding that question ahead of trial, the military judge violated Perry's Fifth Amendment right to proper access to the legal system and his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, his lawyers argued.
A military court should have been allowed to decide at trial whether the order was lawful or not, Perry's lawyers argued. There was never any dispute that Perry refused to submit to the vaccination, so the question was crucial to his defense.
"The trial judge has barred even a hint of a rebuttal to the legality of the order because she has declared the order lawful and will exclude any evidence to the contrary as a result," Perry's lawyers wrote.
Perry was convicted last month at Camp Pendleton in California.
The Pentagon ordered all 2.4 million active duty and reserve troops to undergo a six-shot anthrax vaccination regimen as protection against biological warfare. More than 400,000 service members have been vaccinated since the program began in 1998.
Full Story: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAWQPGEIKC.html
****
Mar 19, 2001 - 11:11 AM
Marine Loses Challenge to Vaccine Prosecution
By Anne Gearan
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Marine court-martialed for refusing to take the mandatory anthrax vaccine lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.
The high court, without comment, turned down the Marine's claim that the military prosecution violated his constitutional rights.
Lance Cpl. Matthew D. Perry challenged a pretrial ruling that the order requiring him to take the anthrax vaccination was lawful.
By deciding that question ahead of trial, the military judge violated Perry's Fifth Amendment right to proper access to the legal system and his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, his lawyers argued.
A military court should have been allowed to decide at trial whether the order was lawful or not, Perry's lawyers argued. There was never any dispute that Perry refused to submit to the vaccination, so the question was crucial to his defense.
"The trial judge has barred even a hint of a rebuttal to the legality of the order because she has declared the order lawful and will exclude any evidence to the contrary as a result," Perry's lawyers wrote.
Perry was convicted last month at Camp Pendleton in California.
The Pentagon ordered all 2.4 million active duty and reserve troops to undergo a six-shot anthrax vaccination regimen as protection against biological warfare. More than 400,000 service members have been vaccinated since the program began in 1998.
Full Story: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAWQPGEIKC.html