Opinion ID: 1355273
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Photograph of Victim While Alive

Text: Defendant Thomas submits that it was error for the trial court to permit introduction of a photograph of the victim while alive. At trial, defense counsel objected to introduction of the photograph. The photograph was taken after the April 1997 shooting but prior to the victim's death in October 1999. The trial court overruled the objection stating: I think it's, first of all, relevant in that the state, of course, has the burden of proving that an individual  a living, breathing, human being was killed in these events. And the photograph, itself, is again, a very neutral one. It's black and white. It doesn't have family members around. He's not in a choir robe or a scout uniform or military uniform or anything of that sort. This is a very neutral sort of photograph  no wheelchair  nothing that would be designed to elicit sympathy.... I'll allow it to be used. During the guilt phase of the trial, the photograph of the victim was introduced through the testimony of Betty Gay, an employee of Walgreens. On appeal, Defendant Thomas contends that admission of an 8 by 10 black and white photograph of the victim taken during his lifetime was introduced for the sole purpose of invoking the sympathy of the jury and was error. The State responds that the photograph was relevant to rebut Defendant Thomas' defense that it was Mr. Day's physical health, including obesity, that caused his death, rather than the gunshot. The admission of photographs is generally discretionary with the trial court and absent an abuse of that discretion, will not result in the grant of a new trial. See State v. Banks, 564 S.W.2d 947, 949 (Tenn.1978). In State v. Nesbit, 978 S.W.2d 872 at app. 901-02 & n. 2 (Tenn.1998), cert. den. 526 U.S. 1052, 119 S.Ct. 1359, 143 L.Ed.2d 520 (1999), a capital case involving almost the identical issue, our supreme court adopted this Court's conclusion that, although the requirement of a reasonable creature in being has been removed from the current criminal code, admission of a family portrait of the victim was not error because it was relevant to establish the corpus delicti, including the identity of the person alleged to have been killed. In Bolden v. State, 140 Tenn. 118, 120, 203 S.W. 755 (Tenn.1918), our supreme court held that the evidence necessary to establish the corpus delicti in cases of homicide must show that the life of a human being has been taken, which question involves the subordinate inquiry as to the identity of the person charged to have been killed.... (emphasis added). Thus, the photograph was relevant and we find no reversible error in its admission during the guilt phase of the trial.