United States v. Francis P. Desmond

OPINION OF THE COURT

WEIS, Circuit Judge.

Submission of special interrogatories to a jury in a criminal trial is not favored because they may unduly restrict that body’s *415historical power to acquit. Their use in the case at hand, however, did not rise to the level of plain error. Accordingly, we reject defendant’s challenge to his conviction based on the jury’s answers to interrogatories to which no objection was made at trial.

Defendant, a practicing attorney in Pennsylvania, was charged with violating the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), by failing to report approximately $48,000 in…