Opinion ID: 186375
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of the Missing-Evidence Instruction

Text: 26 A trial court's decision to refuse a request for a missing-evidence instruction is also reviewed for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Tarantino, 846 F.2d 1384, 1404 (D.C.Cir.1988) (describing the standard of review when the analogous missing-witness instruction is denied). A missing-evidence instruction is appropriate if it is peculiarly within the power of one party to produce the evidence and the evidence would elucidate a disputed transaction. See United States v. Williams, 113 F.3d 243, 245 (D.C.Cir.1997) (describing the necessary foundation for an analogous missing-witness instruction); United States v. Glenn, 64 F.3d 706, 709 (D.C.Cir.1995) (same). When these two requirements are met, jurors may be instructed that the controlling party's failure to produce the evidence permits them to draw the inference that the evidence would have been unfavorable to that party. See id. 27 In this case, the District Court correctly ruled that the instruction was not appropriate, because the record did not support the conclusion that the citation was peculiarly available to the Government. Appellant asserts that, because the Government failed to establish that the ticket was lost, the District Court's ruling was mistaken. Br. for Appellant at 28. But this argument is off the mark. As the proponent of the instruction, it was appellant's burden to show that the citation was peculiarly within the control of the Government. As the prosecutor pointed out during trial, there is no reason why [appellant] if he wanted to have a copy of that ticket ... couldn't just go to the bureau of Traffic Adjudication or to the Superior Court ... and get a record of that citation. Trial Tr. at 381. Defense counsel offered no rejoinder to the prosecutor's assertion. He never indicated, for instance, that he had sought or subpoenaed a copy of the citation from Traffic Adjudication, Superior Court, or the Corporation Counsel and that someone from those offices claimed that it was lost or otherwise unavailable. Nor did he argue that there was some rule or policy preventing him from seeking or subpoenaing the record from the proper authorities. 28 Appellant offers nothing more convincing before this court. He asserts only that it is unlikely that West would have received copies of the traffic citations after his altercation with the officers in which he was temporarily blinded and then forcibly arrested. Br. for Appellant at 28. While this may suggest that appellant did not personally possess a copy of the citation, it does not establish that the ticket was within the control of the Government and thus not available to the defense.