Beck v. United States

Appellant was indicted and convicted of robbery under the statute applicable to the District of Columbia.1 On this appeal he says: “The sole point stressed * * * is the 'improper comment made by the trial judge in his argument [charge] to the jury and the failure of the trial judge to clarify an instruction requested by appellant.”

The evidence for the United States was that at about 7:30 in the evening of August 1, 1942, on Third Street, between B and C Streets, Southeast, in the City of Washington, appellant and one Brown accosted one McGrath, whom they knew, and who was then in a drunken…