Arthur Eugene Byrd v. United States

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

On this appeal from a robbery conviction, appellant urges trial court error in failing to instruct the jury that prior inconsistent statements of a defense witness could be considered only for impeachment purposes. The statements had been made by the witness during grand jury proceedings and introduced in this trial by the Government to impeach his inconsistent testimony given on direct examination. The Government urges that we adopt a rule, apparently followed in some jurisdictions, 1 which would permit the substantive use of prior inconsistent statements, if…