United States v. Robinson

Richard Robinson (defendant) was charged with two armed bank robberies committed ten days and twenty-five miles apart in similar fashion; he pleaded guilty to the first. At his trial for the second, the government introduced evidence of his admitted involvement in the first robbery, the similarities between the two robberies, his high-speed chase and struggle with police at arrest, and evidence linking him to both crimes. The judge gave a limiting instruction on how the jury could use the first-robbery evidence, and Robinson was convicted and appealed, arguing the two robberies were too dissimilar and the evidence's prejudicial impact outweighed its probative value.