Opinion ID: 2109284
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: issues

Text: The defendant objected to the admission of certain photographs depicting the decedent's corpse, upon the grounds that they were inflammatory and prejudicial. In order to prevail upon such an allegation of error on appeal, it is a fundamental prerequisite that the reviewing court be afforded the opportunity to see the photographs which are claimed to be objectionable. It is incumbent upon Appellant to present a sufficient record to present an intelligent review of the issues. Bobbitt v. State (1977), Ind., 361 N.E.2d 1193; Bledsoe v. State (1975), 263 Ind. 265, 329 N.E.2d 592; Johnson v. State (1972), 258 Ind. 648, 283 N.E.2d 532. Here there is nothing to review. The record and briefs are deficient in respect to this issue. The motion to correct errors and the brief refer only to the erroneous admission of three photographs of the deceased offered by the State over objection of the defendant   . and    three photographs of the deceased depicting the wounds on his body after the fatal attack. Nowhere do we find a reference to the particular exhibits (photographs) complained of. The record consists of more than thirteen hundred pages, and the State introduced twenty-five exhibits, most of which appear to have been photographs. At no point in the brief has Appellant directed us to the specific photograph by exhibit or page number or to the page of the record where the objection and rulings might be found. Compounding the problem, none of the photographs in evidence are in the transcript. Rather, attempted office copier copies have been substituted. These attempted copies are unintelligible, mere streaks and blurs of black ink. Some are blank sheets of white paper. It is inconceivable that we could be expected to rule upon an issue so inadequately presented. The thrust of the defendant's argument upon this issue was that the photographs of the deceased's mutilated body, presumably in the condition that it was in when found by the authority, were irrelevant in view of the defendant's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Although this Court has, upon a few occasions, reversed criminal convictions for admitting inflammatory and irrelevant photographs into evidence, Kiefer v. State (1961), 239 Ind. 103, 153 N.E.2d 899, and, in others, has been critical of admitting gruesome photographs where the relevancy was but slight and the tendency to inflame was great, Carroll v. State (1975), 263 Ind. 696, 338 N.E.2d 264; Bates v. State (1977), Ind., 366 N.E.2d 659, we have never followed a policy of dictating the State's tactical policy of prosecution. Rather, the rule is one of relevance. The photographs may well have been relevant, notwithstanding the insanity plea, which only added a factor to the State's burden and did not relieve it from the necessity of proving the corpus delicti, purpose, malice and premeditation.