People v. Morris

Memorandum. We agree with the Appellate Division in its memorandum for reversal that the summation by the prosecutor was improper and that the history portion of the autopsy report should not have been excluded. These two errors taken together constituted reversible error which required reversal of the conviction and a new trial.

However, we cannot adopt the Appellate Division’s view that the trial court erred in its instruction to the jury on circumstantial evidence. While we would prefer that the instruction on circumstantial evidence state that the hypothesis of guilt should flow naturally…