Court Opinion

ID: 9457512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:24:04.404391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:22.988112
License: Public Domain

FAHY, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
The failure of the trial court to give a limiting instruction to the jury on the use it could make of the 12 year old shotgun incident in which appellant threatened the deceased constituted in my opinion reversible error.
The Government’s case-in-chief consisted of the testimony of three witnesses, covering 23 pages of the transcript. The son of the deceased testified that his mother and appellant had been “common law man and wife for a number of years.” Dr. Rayford, who performed the autopsy on the body of the deceased, testified that the bullet which caused her death entered her forehead. Officer Early testified that he and another officer responded to a call about the shooting and observed appellant standing in the doorway of the house when they arrived. The officer then said:
[W]e asked him did he call the police, and he said, “Yes.” He stated that he shot the woman and we asked him where, and he said, “Over there,” and we saw her laying on the floor, and we said, “Where is the gun,” and he said, “On the desk.”
The above was the Government’s case-in-chief, aside from a certificate admitted in evidence which indicated that appellant did not have a license to carry a pistol.
Appellant testified in his defense, in substance as set forth in the court’s opinion. Prior to his testifying the question arose whether, if appellant said the shooting was a mistake or accident, the prosecution would b.e allowed to show he had threatened the deceased with a shotgun 12 years earlier. After an extended colloquy the trial court ruled that the prosecution would be permitted to inquire about the shotgun incident because it “reflects motive.” Subsequently, on his cross-examination, appellant admitted the incident. The court, nevertheless, failed to instruct the jury that this evidence could be considered by the jury only as bearing on motive.1
The court in its opinion recognizes the long standing principle that evidence of one crime is inadmissible to show a general disposition of an accused to commit crime. Yet the 12 year old incident was before the jury without a limiting instruction, in violation of this principle.
The shotgun incident was admissible, as the court says, to show appellant’s previous, and possibly continuing, hostility toward the deceased, which in turn bore on the question whether appellant committed a criminal homicide.2 See 1 Wigmore, Evidence § 117 (3d ed. 1940); 2 id. §§ 385-397. The court assumes, however, that the instruction which appellant would have wanted was “that the jury could not consider the shotgun threat as evidence of appellant’s motive or absence of mistake unless it first determined that he had done the shooting.” The assumption I think is a mistaken one. True, such an instruction would be proper, and indeed necessary, if the evidence of the earlier incident had been admitted to prove only intent. United States v. McClain, 142 U.S.App.D.C. 213, *695440 F.2d 241 (1971); United States v. Gay, 133 U.S.App.D.C. 337, 410 F.2d 1036 (1969); 2 Wigmore, supra, §§ 300, 302, 363. The evidence, however, was admitted to show a motive on appellant’s part to commit the act charged, and, therefore, as evidence that he did so. The proper limitation on its use by the jury in this situation was that it should be considered only insofar as it evidenced a previously existing hostility on the part of appellant toward the deceased, which in turn could be considered on the question whether such hostility still existed at the time of the act charged; and if so, the instruction should continue, the jury could consider the existence of such hostility at the time of the act charged in determining the critical issue whether appellant in fact committed the act charged to him. See 1 Wigmore, supra, § 117; 2 id. §§ 385, 389, 395. In addition, the jury should have been instructed that in no event could it use the evidence as indicative that he was generally a culpable person, though the principle point is that the jury should have at least been instructed, as in McClain, as to the limited purpose for which the evidence was admitted.
Since the jury was left at large with the evidence of the shotgun incident, enabling it to consider that appellant was a criminal type, rather than being limited in its use as set forth above, the trial became infected with serious error. Absent proper instruction there is the danger, recognized by the court itself, that the jury would infer a general disposition on appellant’s part to commit crime. Moreover, only with an appropriate limiting instruction can courts hope to confine consideration by a jury of such prejudicial evidence within the limits the law allows.
The recent decision in McClain is explicit that a limiting instruction is necessary whenever evidence of other criminal conduct of an accused is introduced at trial: 3
Whenever prosecution evidence is introduced which is admissible only for a limited purpose, the defendant is entitled to instructions which inform the jury of the proper use which may be made of that evidence.
United States v. McClain, .supra, 142 U. S.App.D.C. at 217, 440 F.2d at 245. See United States v. Bussey, 139 U.S.App. D.C. 268, 272-273, 432 F.2d 1330, 1334-1335 (1970); 4 United States v. Gay, supra, 133 U.S.App.D.C. at 340-341, 410 F.2d at 1039-1040 ;5 1 Wigmore, supra, § 13. The court now rules quite contrarily to these decisions. Its attempt to distinguish the McClain decision on its facts entirely overlooks the basis of that decision; for the court in McClain expressly disclaimed reliance upon the facts mentioned by the majority. McClain is clearly to the effect that an appropriate limiting instruction should be given in all cases where the evidence has a limited purpose; and it is clear that the evidence of the shotgun incident was admissible for a limited purpose, notwithstanding it was admissible, as the majority recognize, to show appellant committed the act charged to him.6
*696The reversible character of the error is not obviated by the absence of a request by counsel for the instruction. Nothing appears to indicate that counsel for tactical or other reasons waived the instruction to which appellant himself was entitled. In this situation the McClain case again is explicit as to the reversible character of the error. The court in the present case, however, overlooks the language of McClain in declining to find plain error, indeed does not even make reference to McClain in that connection. Moreover, in view of the paucity of the Government’s evidence, as well as the very close question on the evidence whether the homicide was second degree murder or manslaughter, the error was not harmless. I have great difficulty in finding any rational basis in the evidence for the jury to have convicted of second degree murder instead of manslaughter, assuming a guilty verdict, except for an impermissible use by the jury of the old incident. There is strong indication that the shooting occurred in a sudden fracas and that appellant deeply regretted its fatal result.7
Since in my view reversal of appellant’s conviction is required, I am unable to dispose of the conviction of carrying a dangerous weapon without a license on the basis of United States v. Hooper, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 171, 432 F.2d 604 (1970). The Government’s evidence on this part of the case in no way showed that appellant brought the pistol with him on the night in question.8 Appellant, when asked if he had brought the gun with him, replied in the negative, and said: “[Wjhen I was living there, when I moved, she had taken the gun. I never have seen it since. She would never give it to me. * * * I asked for it. I looked around the house and I couldn’t find it.” The evidence at trial thus demonstrated that appellant never removed the gun which he owned from the deceased’s home when he terminated his residence there. I accordingly would hold that the statutory exception contained in D.C. Code § 22-3204 for the crime therein defined — -“except in his dwelling house” — applies to the facts of appellant’s case to require reversal of his conviction for carrying a dangerous weapon without a license. Compare Bell v. United States, 49 App.D.C. 367, 265 F. 1007 (1920).
I respectfully dissent.

. It is not disputed that the shotgun incident was admitted solely to show motive.

. I would be reluctant as a trial judge to admit in evidence a 12 year old incident as relevant to the issue of motive. Its attenuated value as probative evidence when so remote from the act charged is in my view outweighed by its inflammatory effect on a jury. Recognizing, however, the extremely broad discretion given to trial judges in this area, I am constrained to conclude that its admission in evidence was not reversible error. See 2 Wigmore, Evidence § 396 (3d ed. 1940).

. Moreover, tlie limiting instruction must be given at the moment the prejudicial evidence is admitted. United States v. McClain, supra; United States v. Bussey, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 268, 272-273, 432 F.2d 1330, 1334-1335 (1970).

. The court in Bussey said:
Moreover, no instruction was given at the time this testimony was admitted, to caution the jurors on the limited purpose for which it was being received, and it blinks reality to think that * * * the jury was capable of the “mental gymnastic” 18 of disregarding this evidence in “any respect” except as to the one purpose permitted by the trial court. [Footnote omitted]

. The court in Gay said:
Having found the evidence admissible, the trial court was, of course, under a duty to instruct the jury on the limited purpose for which the evidence was to be considered.

. The evidence of the prior shotgun incident was admissible only to show motive. Though this affords the jury a broader use of the evidence than when the question of intent is involved, as in *696McClain, the evidence still was admissible only for a limited purpose. To have allowed it to be used by the jury at large was quite contrary to McClain. It deprived appellant of his right to ensure that the jury consider it only for its permissible value. See the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Warren, with whom Mr. Justice Douglas, Mr. Justice Brennan, and Mr. Justice Portas joined, in Spencer v. Texas, 385 U.S. 554, 572-575, 87 S.Ct. 648, 17 L.Ed.2d 606 (1967), which is not inconsistent with the Court’s opinion.

. If the court were to reduce appellant’s conviction to manslaughter in the interest of justice to avoid a new trial because of the error which occurred, I would be disposed to agree. Compare Austin v. United States, 127 U.S.App.D.C. 180, 382 F.2d 129 (1967); Hemphill v. United States, 131 U.S.App.D.C. 46, 402 F.2d 187 (1968); 28 U.S.C. § 2106.

. The testimony of Sergeant O’Brien offered in rebuttal was, of course, only for the purpose of impeachment and cannot serve as substantive evidence of the crime charged. See p. 696 n. 7 supra, of the court’s opinion.