People v. Morris

OPINION OF THE COURT

Abdus-Salaam, J.

In People v Tosca (98 NY2d 660 [2002]) and People v Resek (3 NY3d 385 [2004]), we held that a trial court may, in its discretion, admit evidence of uncharged crimes to provide background information explaining the police actions to the jury if the probative value of the evidence outweighs the prejudice to the defendant, and the evidence is admitted with proper limiting instructions. Our application of these principles led to opposite outcomes in those cases: in Tosca, we held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing police testimony…