Opinion ID: 1977223
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: color slides of murder victim

Text: At the trial the prosecution introduced a number of color slides taken of the deceased at the mortuary in Sturgis in the course of the autopsy. Appellant alleges that the admission of these into evidence was reversible error. In view of our holding in State v. Aschmeller, 1973, S.D., 209 N.W.2d 369, which we find applicable here, we are of the opinion that Appellant's claim is devoid of merit. There we said: In a prosecution for murder it appears to be a well-established rule that photographs of the victim duly verified, are, in the discretion of the trial court, admissible in evidence as an aid to the jury even though such photographs may have the additional effect of tending to excite the emotions of the jury, as defendant claims they did in this case. This was clearly a matter of discretion. We have examined the slides in question and cannot find an abuse of discretion by the lower court. Counsel for Mrs. Hamm argue that the slides illustrated nothing which could not have been equally well described in words or by diagrams. This may be true but this does not consequently outlaw the pictures. In the case of State v. Tinklenberg, 1972, 292 Minn. 271, 194 N.W.2d 590, the Minnesota Supreme Court said: `   Photographs are admissible as competent evidence where they accurately portray anything which it is competent for a witness to describe in words, or where they are helpful as an aid to a verbal description of objects and conditions, provided they are relevant to some material issue; and they are not rendered inadmissible merely because they vividly bring to jurors the details of a shocking crime or incidentally tend to arouse passion or prejudice. This is the general rule, and any other would be an anachronism in this day when pictures are a common and recognized medium for the accurate portrayal of objects and events.' 194 N.W.2d at 591. We can only add to the words of the Minnesota Supreme Court that the television and other pictorial coverage of events of the past decade or two which have included war and rebellion, famine and earthquake, typhoon and hurricane, assassination and suicide, has certainly created an atmosphere and an attitude, in the minds of most, far different from that which we might have found forty or fifty or more years ago. We suspect that today's average juror would be far, far less disturbed or prejudiced by the sight of the murdered victim's wounds through the medium of a color slide than would have been a turn-of-the-century juror viewing a black and white photo of the victim's draped remains.