Opinion ID: 2058374
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admissibility of Crime Scene and Autopsy Photographs in Penalty Phase.

Text: During the guilt phase of the trial, three photographs were admitted in evidence without objection. The photographs depicted the interior of Reynolds' apartment, the stairwell outside the apartment, and the location of the victims' bodies. On defense counsel's objection, the trial court excluded three other photographs of the victims under Evidence Rule 4, and also excluded on the same ground a series of autopsy photographs of the victims. During the penalty phase of the case, the State sought again to introduce in evidence the crime scene and autopsy photographs that had been excluded in the guilt phase. Defense counsel objected, contending that the close-up color photographs of the bloodstained victims and the close-up autopsy photographs depicting the location of the stab wounds were highly inflammatory and so potentially prejudicial as to outweigh any relevance of the photographs to any issue in the penalty phase. The trial court, applying as noted above, supra at 635, a pre- Ramseur interpretation of aggravating factor c(4)(c), ruled the photographs to be admissible: First with respect to the three already marked, S-11, 12 and 16, and generally with respect to all of them, it seems to me where the burden of the State is to prove that the killing was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman, involving an aggravated battery to the victim or torture, that it would be foolhardy to say that the pictures which demonstrate graphically the extent of the wounds  especially with respect to the autopsy pictures demonstrate the extent of the wounds, the nature of the wounds and on what parts of the body they were inflicted, the pictures indicating the crime scene which again demonstrate, inferentially at least, the violence which must have been involved to give rise to that particular scene are all very relevant, highly probative in the penalty portion. I have looked at them with a view to determining whether or not that probative value is overcome by any potential to invoke passion on the part of the jury or prejudice on the part of the jury as a result of that passion, and I don't think they do. As noted, the interpretation of factor c(4)(c) adopted in State v. Ramseur, supra, 106 N.J. 123, filed after the trial in this case, focuses on the defendant's intention to inflict severe physical or psychological pain prior to death, supra at 635-637, an issue concerning which crime scene and autopsy photographs would have only limited, if any, relevance. Moreover, the extent to which the victims endured pain before death would be a subject more appropriately addressed by expert medical testimony than by photographs. Although as a general rule the admissibility of photographs of a crime victim rests in the trial court's discretion, State v. Thompson, 59 N.J. 396, 420 (1971), the need to balance the ostensible relevance of such evidence against the likelihood of jury prejudice is especially critical in the penalty phase of a capital case. It is evident that the photographs were inadmissible in the penalty phase for the purposes stated by the trial court. In the event, on remand, some or all of these photographs are offered to support aggravating factor c(4)(c) as interpreted in Ramseur, [10] the trial court should carefully evaluate their admissibility in the context of the State's burden of proof, other evidence adduced by the State, and the provisions of Evidence Rule 4.