In a pretrial document submitted to the Court yesterday, attorney for Frank Vennes Jim Volling made a last-ditch argument to have his client's 26-year-old prior felony convictions excluded from the trial. Volling goes on to disclose his strategy to counter the prejudicial evidence of his client's past criminality- he will call on additional evidence and witnesses testifying to Frank Vennes's "good acts" and rehabilitation. Whether Mr. Volling is referring to letters supporting a pardon for Mr. Vennes written by former Senator Norm Coleman and Representative Michele Bachmann remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that those letters and witnesses would be powerful evidence in the hands of a good defense attorney.
In another motion, Volling also asked the Court to exclude other evidence of the character of Frank Vennes he deemed prejudicial. Also included is a document with redactions from a lawsuit Frank Vennes filed in 1996.
