Opinion ID: 1722174
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Suppression of photographs and videotape

Text: Mr. Hodge contends it was error to allow introduction of photographs showing the decomposing bodies of the victims as they were found by the police as well as the photographs of the blood found on the couch where Mr. Flick apparently lay when he was shot, the bloody pillows apparently used to muffle the gunshot sounds, and the blood trail down the hallway of the house. The photographs of the bodies are, no doubt, gruesome, but that does not automatically require their exclusion from evidence. Jones v. State, 329 Ark. 62, 947 S.W.2d 339 (1997). In support of his argument, Mr. Hodge cites Berry v. State, 290 Ark. 223, 718 S.W.2d 447 (1986), a decision in which we held that autopsy photographs of a murder victim should have been suppressed because their prejudicial effect outweighed their probative value. The distinction here is that the photographs in the Berry case had very little if any probative value, but the photographs in this case showed the positions of the bodies as they were found and depicted the efforts of the killer to cover up the bodies and the blood. The still photographs were not cumulative to each other. While the videotape showed some of the same scenes as those depicted in the still photographs, it gave different perspectives. The Trial Court refused to allow the jury to see that part of the video tape showing the removal of the bodies from the house. He also excluded the autopsy photographs. There was no need, as contended by Mr. Hodge, for the Trial Court to require alternative pictures, such as drawings or black-and-white photographs instead of the color ones, because the photographs and the videotape were relevant. We cannot say their prejudicial effect outweighed their probative value. Ark. R. Evid. 403.