In State v. Butler, the New Jersey Supreme Court will address whether a prosecutor’s reference to the television show The Wire tainted the defendant’s trial to the extent that a new trial is warranted. The Appellate Division previously held that the error was not egregious enough.
Facts of State v. Butler
Defendant Gerald W. Butler is appealing his convictions for conspiracy and various drug-related offenses, including possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, distribution of CDS, and his aggregate fifteen-year sentence. He claims the trial was tainted by the prosecutor’s opening and closing statements comparing his conduct to that depicted in the television show The Wire.
Butler further contends that these statements were exacerbated by the repeated testimony suggesting he was a part of a violent network of organized crime, although the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate a conspiracy, and that the court erred by violating a witness’s privilege against self-incrimination, permitting a police officer to testify he had observed what he believed to be a narcotics transaction, allowing an unreliable in-court identification, failing to properly instruct the jury on identification, and imposing an excessive and otherwise incorrect sentence.
Appellate Division’s Decision
The Appellate Division reversed the Defendant’s conviction for conspiracy to distribute CDS, affirmed his remaining convictions, vacated his sentence, and remanded for resentencing. With regard to the prosecutor’s reference to The Wire, the appeals court found that it was not egregious enough to require a new trial. It further found that the unobjected-to trial testimony did not clearly produce an unjust result.
According to the Appellate Division, the prosecutor’s purpose in referencing The Wire was not to inflame the jurors or divert them from the evidence but to reasonably introduce them to the concept of a wiretap, which was at the core of the State’s case. It wrote:
Defendant argues the prosecutor’s reference to The Wire “inflame[d] the jury and distract[ed] them from focusing on the evidence at trial” because the show was “one of the most violent television series ever produced, and one that depicted brutal murders, gang violence, and sexual assault.” Although that may be true, the prosecutor did not reference any “brutal murders, gang violence, or sexual assault” in her opening. Instead, she used the reference to explain how the State had compiled the evidence it would present against defendant.
Issues Before the NJ Supreme Court
The New Jersey Supreme Court granted certification on April 1, 2025 . The justices have agreed to consider the following question:
Did the prosecutor’s reference to the television show The Wire in the opening statement; references to the Organized Crime Unit, gun violence, and trafficking in the City of Millville; and testimony that defendant was the target of a search warrant, individually or cumulatively amount to reversible error?
Oral arguments have not yet been scheduled.