In a docket released today, the prosecution has alleged that Helio is claiming too many character witnesses.  In the prosecution’s argument, they state:

The reason for the limit is that too many character witnesses is cumulative. That is, for each character witness that says the same thing—that the Castroneveses and Miller are of good character—the probative value goes down while the prejudicial effect goes up.  At some point, around the three to five range, the diminishing returns of the character witnesses’ testimony causes the probative value-prejudicial effect scale to tip in favor of the government.

Now I’m no lawyer, but I think this basically says that too many character witnesses will make the jury sympathetic towards the defendants (AKA Helio, Kati, and Alan Miller).  The basis, though, is more of a psychological argument and not a legal argument, in my eyes.

Explicitly mentioned character witnesses for Helio are philanthropist Adrienne Arsht, priest Father Jose Mario Filho, and Tony Kanaan and Juan Pablo Montoya.  Alan Miller has superbike champ Scott Russell, that guy who won that race that doesn’t count last year and two years prior, and NFL Hall of Famer and former VP candidate Jack Kemp on his side.

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