Opinion ID: 867374
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Victim impact statements and accompanying photos.

Text: ¶ 60 Garza argues that the victim impact evidence was unduly prejudicial in two respects. The admission of victim impact evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Ellison, 213 Ariz. at 141 ¶ 115, 140 P.3d at 924; see also Hampton, 213 Ariz. at 181 ¶ 58, 140 P.3d at 964 (holding that victim impact evidence cannot be so unduly prejudicial that it renders the trial fundamentally unfair (quotation marks omitted)). [12]
¶ 61 Ida LaMere, Ellen's mother, discussed the family's feelings of loss as follows: We know death is inevitable, disease, accidents, old age, wars, but not like this. There really aren't any words to express the horror and devastation of a 4:00 a.m. phone call telling me my baby has been shot to death along with her friend. The best I can compare this to is what you all might have felt the day of September 11 when the horrible, devastating attacks to New York and Washington, D.C. happened, and always living in the fear that you just don't know what is going to happen any more. ¶ 62 This statement was not unduly prejudicial. LaMere drew a comparison between an event universally painful for all Americans and the pain she and her family experienced as a result of Ellen's murder. She did not equate Garza to the 9/11 terrorists; rather, her statement properly focuse[d] on the effect of the crime on the victim and the victim's family. Roque, 213 Ariz. at 221 ¶ 114, 141 P.3d at 396. [13]
¶ 63 LaMere and Brenda Rush, Lance's mother, each displayed photographs of Ellen and Lance during their statements. We have recognize[d] the danger that photos of victims may be used to generate sympathy for the victim and his or her family, but we have declined to categorically bar their use, relying upon the discretion of the trial court to prevent undue prejudice. Ellison, 213 Ariz. at 141 ¶ 115, 140 P.3d at 924. The superior court did not abuse its discretion here. The photographs depicted the lives of the murder victims and thus supported the statutory victims' descriptions of their losses.