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People v. Barnes

80 N.Y.2d 867 Court N.Y. Decision date 1992-07-07 English

Contents

Majority

p. 867
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Angelo Barnes, Appellant.
Argued June 3,1992;
decided July 7, 1992
p. 868
APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
Lynn W. L. Fahey and Philip L. Weinstein for appellant.
Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney (Raymond Vallejo and Stanley R. Kaplan of counsel), for respondent.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing a demonstration in which court officers portrayed the defendant and the victim for the limited purpose of illustrating their relative positions, according to the witness’ testimony, at the time of the shooting (see, People v Acevedo, 40 NY2d 701 , 704; Uss v Town of Oyster Bay, 37 NY2d 639 , 641). The prosecutor’s attempts to carry the demonstration further were curtailed by the court in response to defendant’s objections and appropriate limiting instructions were given. Under the circumstances, we agree with the courts below that no undue prejudice resulted.

Similarly, to the extent that the prosecutor misstated the law of justification or made other improper comments, the trial court’s instructions for the jury to follow only the court’s instructions on the law and its other curative instructions were sufficient to ensure defendant a fair trial.

Chief Judge Wachtler and Judges Simons, Kaye, Titone, Hancock, Jr., and Bellacosa concur.

Order affirmed in a memorandum.

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