Powell v. United States

Appellant was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder while armed, D.C. Code §§ 22-2403, -3202 (1981), and assault with a dangerous weapon, id. § 22-502. He seeks reversal of his conviction on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct, instructional error concerning the malice element of second-degree murder and insufficiency of the evidence. Being unpersuaded by these contentions, we affirm.

Early on a Sunday morning in October 1981, a uniformed police officer assigned to a marked cruiser stationed himself at a radar checkpoint along a well-travelled thoroughfare in Southeast Washington. At…