Robert Walker v. United States

In this appeal from a jury conviction of housebreaking, housebreaking while armed with a weapon, assault with a danger ous weapon, and carrying a dangerous weapon, only one reason is advanced for reversal. It is that the trial court abused its discretion — to the point of plain error within the meaning of Rule 52(b), Fed.R.Crim.P. — by permitting the prosecution to bring out on cross-examination of appellant a prior conviction for the last of these offenses. 1

It may well be true, as appellant argues, that this prior conviction played some part in shaping the jury’s conclusions. The question…