Opinion ID: 1349795
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Photograph Album

Text: The photograph album, offered and received as a single exhibit, contains 32 individual Polaroid photographs. Eight of them depict a female identified as Merrill; 11 depict a male identified as the husband; and 25 depict vegetation identified as marijuana, 5 of which include Merrill. One portrays a motorcycle. A photograph is admissible in evidence if the subject matter or contents are depicted truly and accurately at a time pertinent to the inquiry and the photograph has probative value as relevant evidence. See, Neb.Evid.R. 401, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-401 (Reissue 1995) (relevant evidence defined); State v. Garza, 241 Neb. 256, 487 N.W.2d 551 (1992); State v. McCaslin, 240 Neb. 482, 482 N.W.2d 558 (1992); State v. Red Kettle, 239 Neb. 317, 476 N.W.2d 220 (1991); State v. Stephenson, 199 Neb. 362, 258 N.W.2d 824 (1977). Of the five photographs depicting Merrill and the vegetation, three contain written legends reading, Gretta's first 3-way! 9/94, This was a nice patch we had at an abandoned farm house, and To everyone who hasn't fucked in the middle of a pot patch. The fact that the officers obtained possession of the album prior to Merrill's arrest establishes that the photographs were developed at a time pertinent to the inquiry, that is, at a time prior to when Merrill was charged with knowingly and intentionally possessing marijuana. The fact that Merrill and the marijuana could be identified establishes that the photographs accurately portrayed those subjects. Thus, the record establishes an adequate foundation for those five photographs. The next question is whether the five photographs were relevant, for only relevant evidence is admissible. State v. Lee, 247 Neb. 83, 525 N.W.2d 179 (1994). Relevant evidence means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. State v. Newman, 250 Neb. 226, 548 N.W.2d 739 (1996); Lee, supra . There are two components to relevant evidence: materiality and probative value. State v. Fahlk, 246 Neb. 834, 524 N.W.2d 39 (1994). Materiality looks to the relation between the propositions for which the evidence is offered and the issues in the case. If the evidence is offered to help prove a proposition which is not a matter in issue, the evidence is immaterial. What is in issue, that is, within the range of the litigated controversy, is determined mainly by the pleadings, read in the light of the rules of pleading and controlled by the substantive law. Fahlk, supra . Probative value is a relative concept; the probative value of a piece of evidence involves a measurement of the degree to which the evidence persuades the trier of fact that the particular fact exists and the distance of the particular fact from the ultimate issues of the case. Newman, supra; State v. Eona, 248 Neb. 318, 534 N.W.2d 323 (1995). Given Merrill's defense that she did not know what marijuana looked like in plant form and therefore could not have knowingly or intentionally possessed it, we must conclude that the five photographs raised an inference that having been photographed with marijuana in plant form, she knew how marijuana appeared in such form. The photographs were thus relevant and cannot be said to have suggested a decision on an improper basis. However, the record contains no foundation for the legends which accompanied three of the five photographs; while the record reveals that the husband wrote them, it does not tell us when they were written, the purpose for which they were written, or even whether Merrill knew of their existence. Thus, only the two photographs not accompanied by legends depicting Merrill and the vegetation were properly admissible in evidence. But although Merrill objected to some questions relating to some photographs, she did not object to the admission of any single photograph; rather, she objected to the admission of the photograph album as a whole. It is not error to overrule an objection which is in part valid and in part invalid. Lee, supra . Thus, an objection to an exhibit as a whole is properly overruled where a part of the exhibit is admissible. Id. Two of the 32 photographs being admissible, the district court did not err in overruling the objections to the album as a whole.