People v Smith
2007 NY Slip Op 10355 [46 AD3d 1458]
December 21, 2007
Appellate Division, Fourth Department
As corrected through Wednesday, February 13, 2008


The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v RameenSmith, Appellant.

[*1]Norman P. Effman, Public Defender, Attica (Neal J. Mahoney of counsel), fordefendant-appellant.

Gerald L. Stout, District Attorney, Warsaw (Donald G. O'Geen of counsel), forrespondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the Wyoming County Court (Mark H. Dadd, J.), renderedDecember 8, 2005. The judgment convicted defendant, after a jury trial, of promoting prisoncontraband in the first degree.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from be and the same hereby isunanimously affirmed.

Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him following a jury trial ofpromoting prison contraband in the first degree (Penal Law § 205.25 [2]). We rejectdefendant's contention that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence (see generallyPeople v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495 [1987]). Even assuming, arguendo, that a differentresult would not have been unreasonable, we conclude that the jury did not fail to give theevidence the weight it should be accorded (see generally id.). We reject the furthercontention of defendant that he was deprived of a fair trial based on prosecutorial misconductduring summation. Contrary to defendant's contention, the prosecutor used the word "they" torefer to defendant and defense counsel collectively, rather than to prison inmates as a class, andwe conclude that the remarks were within the broad bounds of rhetoric permitted duringsummation (see People v Galloway, 54 NY2d 396, 399 [1981]). Present—Scudder,P.J., Hurlbutt, Lunn, Fahey and Pine, JJ.


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