United States v. Charles Frederick Woods, and United States of America v. Gerald Keith Underwood

I respectfully dissent on two grounds from the majority’s opinions affirming appellants’ convictions. First, the trial court failed to give a cautionary limiting instruction to the jury concerning the limited use of prejudicial “common pattern or scheme” evidence of defendants’ prior involvement in another bank robbery. Secondly, evidence unconnected to the offense for which defendants were being tried, and which had not been properly admitted into evidence, was permitted to remain in the courtroom during trial within the purview of the jury. These two errors, when taken together, were…