Opinion ID: 1518773
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: did the trial court err in the admission of evidence of the victims' backgrounds?

Text: Appellant presents as error the introduction of evidence solely designed to elicit sympathy for the victims. The evidence consisted of the testimony of a close relative of each victim who set forth the birthday, marital status, employment, and number of children, if any, of each victim, as well as when the relative last saw the victim. Each relative testified for about five minutes. It is Appellant's contention that this evidence, coupled with the prosecution's repeated references to the victims and the use of the photographs discussed earlier in this opinion, denied him a fair trial. We begin by noting that this error was in no way preserved, a fact admitted by appellate counsel. Even were the evidence objected to, the amount of testimony introduced does not begin to approach the prejudicial levels required to make this a reversible error. We have repeatedly held that a certain amount of background evidence regarding the victim is relevant to understanding the nature of the crime. This Court has previously held that it was not error in the guilt phase when the testimony of the [relative] merely called the attention of the jury to the fact that the victim was once a living person rather than a statistic. Bussell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 882 S.W.2d 111, 113 (1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1174, 115 S.Ct. 1154, 130 L.Ed.2d 1111 (1995) (citations omitted). The witnesses were not overly emotional, condemnatory, accusative or demanding vindication, the type of testimony that was condemned in cases such as Benge v. Commonwealth, 265 Ky. 503, 97 S.W.2d 54 (1936); Dean v. Commonwealth, Ky., 777 S.W.2d 900 (1989); and Clark, supra . There is no reversible error here.