# Towles v. United States

> District of Columbia Court of Appeals · March 13, 1981 · 428 A.2d 836

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9746877

## Case

- **Full name:** Duane A. TOWLES, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee
- **Court:** District of Columbia Court of Appeals
- **Decided:** March 13, 1981
- **Citations:** 428 A.2d 836; 1981 D.C. App. LEXIS 240
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Newman
- **Judges:** Newman, Kelly, Harris
- **Cited by:** 24 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9746877

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- finding plain error, and reversing, because of the jury’s “likely improper consideration of the impeaching statement as substantive evidence”
- finding plain error in failure to give cautionary instruction where government impeached its own witness with a prior inconsistent statement

## Opinion text

NEWMAN, Chief Judge,
concurring:
I join the opinion of Judge Harris except for Part III. Whether, on the one hand, one reads footnote 5 of Johnson v. United States, D.C.App., 387 A.2d 1084 (1978) (en banc), as reaffirming a per se reversal rule where the government impeaches its own witness with a prior inconsistent statement and the court fails to give a limiting instruction, sua sponte, or, on the other hand, as Judge Harris does, that such a failure must be evaluated under the plain error regime of Watts v. United States, D.C.App., 362 A.2d 706 (1976) (en banc), we are in agreement that this conviction must be reversed.
KELLY, J., concurs in the result only.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9746877. Public record. Not legal advice.