TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – A judge didn’t err when allowing the photograph of a dying child to be shown to jurors in a wrongful death case, a New Jersey appeals court ruled.
In doing so, it found the toddler's health care providers can’t be blamed for his death from an immune deficiency.
On Sept. 2, the Superior Court Appellate Division ruled against Jennifer O’Connor, the administratrix of Jayden O’Connor’s estate. Jayden suffered from X-linked Severe Combined Immune Deficiency, and the lawsuit alleged his doctors deprived him of the opportunity to undergo a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
Jayden died when he was 18 months old. When the trial began, the trial judge permitted a photo of Jayden in the Intensive Care Unit to be attached to a juror questionnaire.
Over O’Connor’s lawyers’ objection, the judge said the jury was “going to see it anyway.”
“Plaintiff initially objected to showing the photograph but on the record requested that more photographs be displayed,” the appeals court decision says.
“Although we question why photographs or other evidence should ever be shown to an array during voir dire, only two excused jurors mentioned the photograph as a reason they could not be impartial; the remaining excused jurors had more general reasons, including the loss of a young relative or their work with young children.”
The court said plaintiffs counsel must have realized the photo was capable of invoking sympathy for O’Connor.
Plaintiffs lawyers also argued that the questionnaire and photograph could have led to the exclusion of jurors with children. The first eight jurors were childless, and most of the replacement jurors also had no kids.
“Plaintiff happened to draw an array that had an unusually high percentage of people with no children,” the decision says.
“Thus, even if legally sustainable, the record does not support plaintiff’s claim.”