Allen v. United States

This appeal involves a prosecutor’s attempt to impeach a defendant who had raised a self-defense claim by questioning him about his failure to preserve evidence at the scene of the crime. At trial “[s]pe-cifically, the prosecutor suggested that an innocent man would have kept the pistol, searched the car for clues, told his sister and brother-in-law about Manning’s death, attempted with their help to preserve the van and its contents, and requested Gerard to stay in touch.” See opinion of Judge Schwelb at 7. Such an inference cannot, in my view, be taken at face value, but requires a reasoned…