Opinion ID: 2054987
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of the Sketch

Text: Detective Barry Hathaway testified for the prosecution. He stated that he conducted a personal investigation of the prison novelty room shortly after Ward was discovered. Hathaway personally drew a diagram of the novelty room which was received in evidence at trial as State's Exhibit No. 1. The sketch portrayed the room as rectangular when in fact the room was nearly perfectly square. This distortion made it appear that Stevens, who stood at the bathroom door while observing the assault, would have had an unobstructed view of the assault, when in fact a table located in the middle of the room partially obstructed his view of the incident. A sketch or diagram is generally admissible to illustrate the testimony of a witness so long as the sketch represents an accurate portrayal of the facts which the witness is attempting to relate. United States v. D'Antonio, 324 F.2d 667, 668 (3rd Cir. 1963), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 909, 84 S.Ct. 662, 11 L.Ed.2d 607 (1964); Grayson v. Williams, 256 F.2d 61, 61 (10th Cir. 1958); McCormick, Evidence § 213 (1972). When a trial judge has exercised his discretion to admit a sketch, he will rarely be reversed for abuse of discretion if the record indicates that any potentially misleading inaccuracy has been pointed out by witnesses, or if the inaccuracy was, or could have been, adequately exposed on cross-examination. See, e. g., Grandquest v. Williams, 273 Ala. 140, 135 So.2d 391 (1961); Arkansas State Highway Comm'n v. Rhodes, 240 Ark. 565, 401 S.W.2d 558 (1966); Mississippi Road Supply Co. v. Baker, 199 So.2d 820 (Miss.1967). In the case at bar, although Detective Hathaway conceded on direct examination that his sketch was not drawn to scale, he also testified that the dimensions of the room (24 X 26 feet) were accurately stated on the sketch. He admitted that the sketch incorrectly showed the room as rectangular rather than nearly square. On cross-examination, Hathaway again conceded that the sketch erroneously represented the shape of the room and that the distortion materially affected the portrayal of what inmate Stevens would have been able to see from his position in the bathroom door. Over defense counsel's objection the trial justice admitted the sketch, noting that the inaccuracy in the sketch had been fully developed for the jury in both the direct and cross-examination of Detective Hathaway. Under these circumstances we conclude that the admission of the sketch was not erroneous.