PEOPLE v. SCOTT (2003)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bonnie Wittner, J.), rendered July 6, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentenced him, as a second violent felony offender, to a term of 7 years, unanimously affirmed.

 The prosecutor's summation remarks urging the jurors to use their common sense and life experiences could not have been interpreted by the jury as undermining the People's burden of proving defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.   Furthermore, both in response to defendant's objection, and again in its main charge, the court clearly instructed the jury on the reasonable doubt standard and its relation to the use of common sense (see People v. Cubino, 88 N.Y.2d 998, 648 N.Y.S.2d 868, 671 N.E.2d 1265).   Defendant's remaining contentions concerning the prosecutor's summation and her cross-examination of a defense witness are unpreserved and we decline to review them in the interest of justice.   Were we to review these claims, we would find that the challenged conduct did not deprive defendant of a fair trial (see People v. Overlee, 236 A.D.2d 133, 666 N.Y.S.2d 572, lv. denied 91 N.Y.2d 976, 672 N.Y.S.2d 855, 695 N.E.2d 724;  People v. D'Alessandro, 184 A.D.2d 114, 118-119, 591 N.Y.S.2d 1001, lv. denied 81 N.Y.2d 884, 597 N.Y.S.2d 945, 613 N.E.2d 977).   We note that the court's curative actions prevented such portions of the summation that might be viewed as objectionable from causing any prejudice.