United States v. Everett Alan Palmer

In the course of an armed robbery of a Seattle bank, surveillance photographs were taken, and three tellers, standing a few feet away from the robber, obtained complete and accurate views of him and the revolver which he carried. Three days later, they identified him positively from a photograph. Nine days after the robbery, Palmer was stopped for a traffic violation in Utah, his name was checked with the National Crime Information Center and as a result he was arrested for the Seattle bank robbery.

On appeal, Palmer’s counsel raises four objections: (1) the Government ran afoul of the Brady rule by suppressing exculpatory evidence; (2) admission into evidence of defendant’s personal property taken from his attorney by subpoena duces tecum, violated defendant’s fourth and fifth amendment rights; (3) cross-examination of Palmer went beyond the scope of direct examination in violation of the fifth amendment; and (4) Palmer’s arrest was not based on probable cause. We are not persuaded by any of these contentions and affirm the conviction.

Suppression of Exculpatory Evidence

Palmer contends that the Government’s failure to disclose supposedly exculpatory evidence before…