Opinion ID: 2062667
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Legal Considerations

Text: Rule 30 of the Superior Court's Rules of Criminal Procedure provides in pertinent part as follows: No party may assign as error any portion of the charge or omission therefrom unless that party objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which that party objects and the grounds of the objection. In the absence of a timely objection, a conviction may be reversed only for plain error. Watts v. United States, 362 A.2d 706, 708-09 (D.C.1976) (en banc). Plain error contemplates a clear showing of a miscarriage of justice. Hunter v. United States, 606 A.2d 139, 141 (D.C.1992). There is no evidence that Cowan ever requested an instruction on self-defense or defense of another with regard to the charges of second-degree murder, attempted distribution of cocaine, or CPWOL. Such instructions have no conceivable relevance to the drug and weapons counts, and Cowan's attorneys repeatedly disclaimed any interest in self-defense or defense of a third person in relation to the second-degree murder charge. Cowan's request that we reverse these three convictions is totally lacking in merit. His position is not appreciably more persuasive with respect to his felony murder conviction. On several occasions prior to closing argument, [6] defense counsel unambiguously stated that they were requesting instructions on self-defense and defense of a third person only if the judge gave an aiding and abetting instruction on felony murder. In doing so, Cowan's attorneys invited the judge not to instruct on self-defense and defense of a third party if no aiding and abetting instruction was given. Courts are especially reluctant to reverse for plain error when it is invited. United States v. Mangieri, 224 U.S.App. D.C. 295, 305, 694 F.2d 1270, 1280 (1982). After closing argument, Cowan's attorneys essentially reiterated the position which they had taken previously. At the very least, they did not clearly change it. On one occasion, to be sure, counsel spoke about self-defense even if Cowan was the shooter, but she did not revise her prior request to charge. She also suggested that a showing that a defendant did not act in self-defense or in defense of another is in effect an element which the prosecution must prove. On the very next page of the transcript, however, counsel reiterated that she was not seeking a self-defense instruction for second-degree murder, an offense which did not involve aiding or abetting. Rule 30 precludes reversal of Cowan's conviction for alleged instructional error unless he stated his thesis in the trial court distinctly. See Britton v. United States, 112 U.S.App.D.C. 207, 208, 301 F.2d 531, 532 (1962) (per curiam). Cowan having clearly and unambiguously linked self-defense and defense of a third person with aiding and abetting, it was surely incumbent upon his attorneys, if they were changing their position, to make that change plain and unambiguous, so that the judge could readily understand it. As we recently noted in Hunter, supra, 606 A.2d at 144, [o]bjections must be made with reasonable specificity; the judge must be fairly apprised as to the question on which he is being asked to rule. Points not asserted with sufficient precision to indicate distinctly the party's thesis will normally be spurned on appeal. Nowhere in this record did Cowan's attorneys state distinctly, with reasonable specificity, or with sufficient precision that their initial (and carefully conceived) position had become inoperative, and that they were now requesting self-defense and defense of a third person instructions unconditionally and across the board. Since the judge never gave an aiding or abetting instruction, the event upon which Cowan's instructional request was conditioned never materialized. Accordingly, his objections in this court to the charge as given must fail, for parties may not assert one theory at trial and another on appeal. Hackes v. Hackes, 446 A.2d 396, 398 (D.C.1982). [7]