Opinion
2011-10-11
The PEOPLE, etc., respondent,v.Jeanine HARRINGTON, appellant.
Lynn W.L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Katherine A. Levine of counsel), for appellant.Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove, Keith Dolan, and Josh Hafetz of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Guzman, J.), rendered August 26, 2009, convicting her of manslaughter in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.
The Supreme Court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in admitting into evidence four autopsy photographs of the victim. The challenged photographs were neither excessively gruesome nor introduced for the sole purpose of arousing the jurors' passions and prejudicing the defendant ( see People v. Wood, 79 N.Y.2d 958, 960, 582 N.Y.S.2d 992, 591 N.E.2d 1178; People v. Pobliner, 32 N.Y.2d 356, 369–370, 345 N.Y.S.2d 482, 298 N.E.2d 637, cert. denied 416 U.S. 905, 94 S.Ct. 1609, 40 L.Ed.2d 110; People v. Fletcher, 84 A.D.3d 1265, 1266, 923 N.Y.S.2d 858, lv. denied 17 N.Y.3d 816, 929 N.Y.S.2d 804, 954 N.E.2d 95). Rather, they were relevant to a material issue at trial and also to elucidate the testimony of the medical examiner regarding the cause of death ( see People v. Prowse, 60 A.D.3d 703, 704, 875 N.Y.S.2d 121; People v. Allan, 41 A.D.3d 727, 727–728, 839 N.Y.S.2d 771).
RIVERA, J.P., BALKIN, HALL and COHEN, JJ., concur.