Opinion ID: 1095294
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Did the trial court err in allowing evidence of Judge Taylor's suicide?

Text: ¶ 41. Morgan made pretrial and continuing contemporaneous objections to evidence that Judge Taylor had committed suicide. Morgan objected to the introduction of Taylor's death certificate which listed the cause of death as suicide. Morgan argues that evidence of the suicide was not relevant to the question of the existence of a conspiracy, and even if relevant, the prejudicial effect of that evidence substantially outweighed its probative value. ¶ 42. The State argued at trial and on appeal that the introduction of evidence of Judge Taylor's suicide, including his death certificate, was not erroneous because the indictment recited that Judge Taylor was deceased and the State was entitled, if not required, to prove what was alleged in the indictment. This explanation would seem more ingenuous if the State had also sought to introduce evidence, including a death certificate, that Charles Morgan was dead as was also stated in the indictment. It can be presumed that the State did not present evidence of Charles Morgan's death because his death certificate did not state that he had died of an intentional drug overdose. Clearly, the reason the State wanted to put this information before the jury was to show Judge Taylor's guilty conscience and to have the jury transfer some Judge Taylor's apparent guilt to other parties, including Scott Morgan. ¶ 43. This Court has held that evidence to the effect that the codefendant, or a person who is alleged to be a joint actor, committed suicide ..., is prejudicial to the defendant and should not be shown in the evidence.... Craft v. State, 254 Miss. 413, 421, 181 So.2d 140, 143 (1965). Mississippi Rule of Evidence 403 provides that otherwise relevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice to the defendant. The probative value of evidence that Judge Taylor died by suicide is negligible at best. Its probative value was clearly outweighed by the prejudicial effect of the jury hearing that one of the co-conspirators had killed himself. Introduction of evidence of Judge Taylor's suicide is reversible error.