How have the courts dealt with the use of photos of a murder victim by a prosecutor in their closing argument?

Defendant contends the photos were largely cumulative of medical testimony regarding the victim's injuries. He also argues that the prosecutor made unfair use of one such photo in his closing argument, asking the jury to compare the photo of Amy when alive with one showing her "dusty and mangled lying out there in the dirt all naked. He [defendant] took this little girl and he trashed her." Although defendant failed to object to this argument (see People v. Green (1980) 27 Cal.3d 1, 27, 164 Cal.Rptr. 1, 609 P.2d 468), he suggests it reinforces the claim that an abuse of discretion occurred here.

Having examined the five photos, we find no abuse of discretion in admitting them. (See People v. Carrera (1989) 49 Cal.3d 291, 329, 261 Cal.Rptr. 348, 777 P.2d 121.) As for the prosecutor's subsequent use of the photos to gain jury sympathy for the murder victim, defendant's failure to object bars consideration of the issue on appeal.