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Sam Bankman-Fried, in first detailed defense, seeks to dismiss charges
- andreareina 3y agohttps://archive.is/94Jme https://archive.is/94Jme
- andreareina 3y agoThere's a remedy for incomplete discovery and that's more discovery, not dismissing the case. IANAL but my understanding is that pre-trial dismissal requires something akin to, "even if the facts are as alleged, there is no case", e.g. the actions that SBF is alleged to have done are not in fact fraud. Or "you cannot allege these facts which support the prosecution because of other undisputed facts X Y Z which directly contradict the allegations".
- qingcharles 3y agoUsually the things you state aren't even grounds for a motion to dismiss, but grounds for an acquittal at trial. That's where you find out if the evidence is really insufficient. By the time you end up in court you have probably been indicted by a grand jury and the court deems that brief hearing to be good enough to survive pretrial attacks on the weight of the evidence and requires all other attacks to be made at trial. Generally I would think the biggest ground for pretrial dismissal is exclusion of evidence so necessary to the prosecution that they have no possible case. Usually based on an illegal search, illegal seizure or compelled statement made in custody. Pretrial dismissal of criminal cases is still a fairly rare bird and most will still end in a plea deal. Even when you have good grounds for a dismissal it often isn't tested in court and is simply used to plead the charges down to something the defendant can swallow and get on with his life, especially if they already have a criminal record.