Title: Bauldree v. State

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

284 So. 2d 196 (1973)
John Phillip BAULDREE, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee (Two Cases).
Nos. 42011, 42157.

Supreme Court of Florida.
October 10, 1973.
Edward R. Kirkland, Orlando, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and George R. Georgieff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
This consolidated cause is before us to review by writ of habeas corpus two convictions of murder in the first degree without recommendation of mercy and sentence of death imposed by the Circuit Court in and for Orange County. Subsequent to the defendant's convictions under authority of Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S. Ct. 2726, 33 L. Ed. 2d 346 (1972), this Court in Anderson v. State, 267 So. 2d 8 (Fla. 1972), reduced the defendant's sentence from death to life imprisonment. We dispense with oral argument as unnecessary. *197 See F.A.R., Rule 3.10(e), 32 F.S.A. We now consider the defendant's grounds urged for reversal.
The defendant's first point concerns the admissibility into evidence of allegedly gruesome and inflammatory photographs. The photographs in question consist of six color photographs of the defendant's slain wife and her slain father in the room where their bodies were found.
In one photograph, one of the bodies had been slightly moved. The defendant argues that under authority of 13 Fla. Jur., Evidence, § 296, such photographs taken after the body has been moved should be held inadmissible. The defendant's argument is without merit, for the only photograph in which the bodies were moved is Exhibit number nine, the only photograph the defendant recognizes as admissible.
As to the remaining photographs, defendant asserts that the test to be utilized to determine their admissibility is the "necessity" test which was established in Albritton v. State, 221 So. 2d 192 (Fla. App.2d, 1969). The Albritton test was stated as follows:
This Court, however, has announced a different view. In State v. Wright, 265 So. 2d 361 (Fla. 1972), we commented on and stated the proper test as follows:
Applying this test of admissibility to this cause, we hold that the photographs in question were relevant and that no error was committed in admitting them into evidence.
The defendant's second and final point is that the evidence before the jury was insufficient to sustain a verdict of murder in the first degree. Upon careful consideration *198 of the record and briefs, we find no reversible error.
Accordingly, the convictions, as previously modified by reduction of sentence, are affirmed.
It is so ordered.
CARLTON, C.J., and ROBERTS, ERVIN, McCAIN and DEKLE, JJ., concur.
[1]  221 So. 2d  at 197.
[2]  265 So. 2d  at 362.