Opinion ID: 2614001
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alleged undue prejudice

Text: (19a) Defendant contends that even if these photographs were relevant, the trial court committed reversible error in failing to exclude them as unduly prejudicial pursuant to Evidence Code section 352. [9] (20a) The admission of photographs of a victim lies within the broad discretion of the trial court when a claim is made that they are unduly gruesome or inflammatory. ( People v. Wilson, supra, 3 Cal.4th 926, 938; People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324, 441 [3 Cal. Rptr.2d 106, 821 P.2d 610].] The court's exercise of that discretion will not be disturbed on appeal unless the probative value of the photographs clearly is outweighed by their prejudicial effect. ( People v. Wilson, supra, 3 Cal.4th 926, 938; People v. Mickey, supra, 54 Cal.3d 612, 655-656; People v. Sanders, supra, 51 Cal.3d 471, 514; People v. Mason, supra, 52 Cal.3d 909, 944.) (19b) The photographs showing the victims' wounds, including the two autopsy photographs, were highly probative as to the kind and degree of force used on the victims, indicative of malice, and, in William's case, to establish the intent to cause cruel suffering and the causation of extreme pain. The photographs depicting the thoroughness with which the victims had been bound were highly probative of, among other issues, the planning and deliberation with which the offenses were executed, because they tended to establish that defendant took great care to render his victims helpless, having brought from his own apartment a pillowcase from which he fashioned the bindings. Similarly, the photographs of the locations and positions of the bodies were highly demonstrative of premeditation and deliberation, establishing, for example, that defendant had separated the two victims and had moved William to the bedroom before killing him. The photographs helped illustrate and corroborate the testimony supplied by Dr. Hall, testimony that provided the factual bases upon which the prosecutor established the foregoing and other relevant matters. The probative value of the photographs was not clearly outweighed by their prejudicial effect. (20b) We have described the prejudice referred to in Evidence Code section 352 as characterizing evidence that uniquely tends to evoke an emotional bias against a party as an individual, while having only slight probative value with regard to the issues. ( People v. Garceau, supra, 6 Cal.4th 140, 178.) As we previously have observed, victim photographs and other graphic items of evidence in murder cases always are disturbing. ( People v. Hendricks, supra, 43 Cal.3d 584, 594.) (19c) Our independent review of the photographs convinces us that, although the photographs are unpleasant, they are not unduly shocking or inflammatory. Nor do they include multiple exposures of very similar views. ( People v. Wilson, supra, 3 Cal.4th 926, 938.) We conclude that, in admitting the photographs, the trial court did not abuse its discretion under Evidence Code section 352, because it reasonably could determine that the probative value of the photographs outweighed their potentially prejudicial effect. ( People v. Wilson, supra, 3 Cal.4th at p. 938; People v. Mickey, supra, 54 Cal.3d 612, 656; People v. Cox, supra, 53 Cal.3d 618, 666; People v. Benson (1990) 52 Cal.3d 754, 786 [276 Cal. Rptr. 827, 802 P.2d 330].) Defendant also contends the photographs merely were cumulative. We often have rejected the contention that photographs of a murder victim must be excluded as cumulative simply because testimony also has been introduced to prove the facts that the photographs are intended to establish. (See, e.g., People v. Wilson, supra, 3 Cal.4th 926, 938; People v. Raley, supra, 2 Cal.4th 870, 897; People v. Thomas, supra, 2 Cal.4th 489, 524; People v. Price, supra, 1 Cal.4th 324, 441.) [10]