United States v. Benson Joseph Donoho

Appellant was convicted of Counts Four, Five and Six of a six-count indictment. In Count Four, he was charged with violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (d) (possession of unregistered firearm); in Count Five with violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (i) (possession of an unserialized firearm); and in Count Six with violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (e) (transfer of firearm without written application). In each count, 26 U.S.C. § 5871 was charged to establish the penalty for the crimes, and 18 U.S.C. § 2 was also added tó Counts Four and Five to charge the aiding and abetting of the alleged crime. During the course of the trial, the Court dismissed the first three counts of the indictment and renumbered the last three as Counts One, Two and Three. All counts related to the possession or transfer of a .22 caliber Maxim silencer on November 17, 1975.'

This Court has jurisdiction of this appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

Appellant presents three issues for' our review:

I

CHARACTER EVIDENCE

The defense attempted to establish defendant’s character by introducing testimony of specific instances of conduct which would have reflected favorably on appellant. The trial court ruled such testimony…