Wendell McIntosh v. United States

This appeal from a narcotics conviction involves the trial court’s refusal to declare a mistrial when a government witness referred to another person, who had questioned the defendant after his arrest, as “the parole officer”. Though the witness did not say this person was the defendant’s parole officer, the quoted phrase may have implied that he was, and thus may have implied that the defendant had previously been convicted of some offense. The prosecutor did not elicit the quoted phrase. The defendant did not testify.

In our opinion the court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to…