Opinion ID: 1127691
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: jury review of taped confession

Text: Yung argues that the district court improperly allowed the jury unlimited review of his taped confession. He claims that the taped confession was testimony which cannot be reviewed by the jury absent court supervision. Chambers v. State, 726 P.2d 1269, 1276 (Wyo.1986) (holding, unequivocally, that testimonial videotape may never go to a jury for unsupervised review during jury deliberations). We reject Yung's claim because the taped confession the jury reviewed was a non-testimonial exhibit. The submission of non-testimonial exhibits rests within the sound discretion of the district court. Id. at 1275. We hold that a defendant's tape recorded confession is a non-testimonial exhibit which the jury may review during deliberations. Stone v. State, 745 P.2d 1344, 1349-50 (Wyo.1987). The thrust of Yung's argument is that the district court abused its discretion by not allowing Yung to argue against the jury's review of the tape. The logic of this position escapes us. Any arguments Yung could marshall against the admissibility of his confession were exhausted when his motion to suppress the confession was denied. After losing the motion to suppress, defense counsel made a tactical decision to rely on the taped confession when he argued Yung's heat of passion theory in closing argument. This is precisely what happened in Stone. Id. at 1350. Just as we found no reversible error in Stone, we find none here.