U.S. v. McGhee

In prosecution on drug and firearm charges arising out of incident in which police were called to woman’s apartment, where woman stated that her husband (defendant) had physically struck her and left apartment with bag containing cocaine and handgun, Dist. Ct. issued sua sponte during trial overly-broad directive to defendant and his legal counsel not to testify about wife’s accusations of domestic violence, where Dist. Ct. also threatened both defendant and his counsel with jail time if they did so. Defendant wanted to deny wife’s domestic violence accusations in effort to bolster defense that it was wife who had manufactured domestic violence claim to police, and who had taken bag containing gun and cocaine and had planted it near where defendant was discovered hiding from police. Ct. of Appeals, though, held that instant directive did not deprive defendant of fair trial, given overwhelming nature of defendant’s guilt, including evidence of Facebook and Snapchat pictures of defendant holding same bag and handgun, as well as improbability of defendant’s defense under instant record. Also, Ct. of Appeals found that although evidence of defendant’s domestic violence had potential to confuse jury based on instant drug and firearm charges, defendant should have been allowed to give bare denial of wife’s accusations made at trial.