Opinion ID: 1829968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 34

Heading: Graphic Photographs

Text: Hansen argues that the Circuit Court erred when it allowed the prosecution, at the penalty phase, to present a photograph of a substantial part of the body of Trooper Ladner. Hansen had objected at trial on relevancy grounds charging that it was inflammatory and gruesome. Hansen cites our increasingly familiar decision in McNeal v. State, 551 So.2d 151, 158-59 (Miss. 1989) wherein we held the circuit court had abused its discretion when it allowed into evidence photographs depicting the victim's decomposed, maggot-infested skull. Today's case is at the opposite extreme. First, the photograph was carefully cropped so as to reflect only the back and not the rest of Trooper Ladner's body. There is nothing gruesome about it. Prosecution witnesses testified that the photograph fairly and accurately depicted the location of the entrance wound on the lower back. We have held admissible photographs reflecting the location of entrance wounds in prior homicide prosecutions. See, e.g., Turner v. State, 573 So.2d 657, 667 (Miss. 1990); Kelly v. State, 463 So.2d 1070, 1074-1075 (Miss. 1985); Holliday v. State, 455 So.2d 750, 752 (Miss. 1984). The photograph appears to have been made contemporaneous with the autopsy and does not show the shoulder wound at all. Moreover, the photograph was not offered at the guilt phase but only at the penalty phase. Presumably it is offered as evidence the homicide was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. At the penalty phase it will ordinarily be relevant to show how the victim died. Mackbee v. State, 575 So.2d 16, 31-32 (Miss. 1990). See Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-101(5)(h) (Supp. 1989). We find no error in the admission of this photograph.