Frank Martin Wilke v. United States

Frank Martin Wilke appeals from a conviction on a charge of bank robbery ( 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a)). He urges five errors.

1. During redirect examination of its witness Nuckols, the government sought to introduce his prior written statement to corroborate his testimony on direct. The court very properly sustained Wilke’s objection and in addition admonished the jury not to attach significance to the attempt. No prejudice is apparent.

2. We decline to speculate whether, as Wilke contends, the “spirit” of the Jencks Act ( 18 U.S.C. § 3500 ) extends to the government investigator’s field notes of an interview with a witness. The Act, in terms, is restricted to writings signed or adopted by a witness and to accounts which are “a substantially verbatim recital” of a witness’s oral statements. 18 U.S.C. § 3500 (e); United States v. Augenblick, 393 U.S. 348 , 89 S.Ct. 528 , 21 L.Ed.2d 537 (1969). The undisputed proof was that these notes were in neither category and that they were routinely destroyed after the agent drafted his “finished interview” report.

3. The government should not have told the jury, nor sought to prove, that the “getaway” car used by Wilke was a stolen vehicle;…