In People v. Gamble, the defendant was charged with first- and second-degree murder for fatally shooting three family members in their apartment. The appeal challenged the placement of court officers directly behind the defendant at trial, claiming it impaired confidential attorney-client communication and signaled dangerousness to the jury, as well as the admission of evidence of uncharged prior incidents under People v. Molineux to establish motive and identity. The Court of Appeals concluded that the seating was justified by security concerns, including a prior disciplinary incident, and did not violate the right to counsel or a fair trial, while the Molineux evidence was properly limited, relevant, and within the trial court's ruling. The court also found no error in excluding speculative third-party culpability evidence or in the handling of burden-of-proof issues. The Appellate Division order was affirmed.

criminal lawprocedure

This case arose from a negligence and wrongful death action after decedent Joaquin Martinez Vargas was killed in a 2002 construction accident at a church property. The jury awarded damages including substantial future losses, and the dispute centered on how to compute preverdict interest under CPLR 5004 and EPTL 5-4.3. The trial court discounted the future damages award back to the date of death and then added statutory interest from death until the verdict date; the Appellate Division upheld this approach, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The core reasoning relied on prior precedent holding that wrongful death damages are treated as due at the date of death, so discounting must occur to that date before interest is calculated, distinguishing such awards from ordinary personal injury verdicts. The court declined to address alternative discounting methods not properly presented.

torts & liabilityprocedure