Opinion ID: 2584893
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Assertedly Improper Admission of Photographs of the Victim's Body

Text: Defendant objected when the prosecutor showed the jury various photographs of Bowie's body taken at the crime scene and during the autopsy as being unduly prejudicial under section 352 of the Evidence Code. The prosecutor responded that the photos were relevant to explain the manner of death and the pathologist's testimony concerning the autopsy results. The trial court conducted a hearing, during which it examined the photos. Ultimately, the prosecutor agreed to withdraw some of the photos, the trial court excluded several others, and five photographs to which defendant continued to object were shown to the jury and entered into evidence. Defendant contends on appeal that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the five photos at issue because they were excessively gruesome and therefore unduly prejudicial as well as cumulative of other evidence and therefore of minimal probative value. Defendant essentially contends that the possibility of undue prejudice substantially outweighed the probative value of these photographs because the state of Bowie's body was quite disturbing and there was no dispute regarding how she was killed. As defendant acknowledges, we have rejected similar arguments on numerous occasions. (See, e.g., Crittenden, supra, 9 Cal.4th at pp. 134-135, and cases cited therein.) These photographs were admissible to establish that the murder was premeditated and deliberate and to explain and corroborate the testimony of the forensic pathologist. We have reviewed the photographs in question and, while we agree that they are highly unpleasant, we again conclude that the trial court, after conscientiously reviewing the photos and excluding the most disturbing, did not abuse its discretion in admitting the remainder. ( People v. Lewis (2001) 25 Cal.4th 610, 641 [106 Cal.Rptr.2d 629, 22 P.3d 392].) To the extent defendant on appeal raises a federal constitutional claim that admission of the photographs violated his right to due process distinct from his claim that the trial court abused its discretion under Evidence Code section 352, he forfeited that claim by failing to raise that independent ground below. ( Partida, supra, 37 Cal.4th at pp. 437-438.) To the extent defendant's claim is a constitutional gloss on his trial objection and therefore not forfeited, it is without merit because there was no abuse of discretion. ( Prince, supra, 40 Cal.4th at p. 1229.)