Opinion ID: 1824244
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Gruesome/Inflammatory Postmortem (Autopsy) Photographs of Victim

Text: Noe contends he is entitled to a new trial because of the admission into evidence during the State's case-in-chief of three color autopsy photographs, one depicting the victim's face and the others the location of his wounds. Noe claims the photographs were not only gruesome and inflammatory, but served no useful evidentiary purpose because the defendant was willing to stipulate that the victim was Steve Wilson and that Wilson died as a result of a gunshot wound to the chest. Where, as here, photographs have probative value, stipulations such as this are not an impediment to admissibility. One of the three autopsy photographs objected to by Noe was introduced during the testimony of Evette Wells, the only ear and eyewitness to the fatal shooting. It depicts the face of the victim with an endotracheal tube protruding from Wilson's mouth. The two other photographs were introduced during the testimony of coroner Martin and depict the entrance and exit wounds. They were used by Martin, who was present when the photographs were taken, to explain and illustrate the location and size of the gunshot wounds sustained by Wilson. The photographs introduced here were neither inordinately gruesome nor inflammatory. They served a meaningful evidentiary purpose in establishing the identity of the man shot by Noe and also the size, nature, and location of the gunshot wounds described by coroner Martin. More importantly, the photographs corroborated the testimony of Evette Wells that at the time Wilson was shot he was lying on the ground defenseless, reaching up with his hand in a conciliatory gesture while seeking to return the package of cocaine he had taken from Noe. The probative value of the three photographs outweighed any prejudicial effect they were likely to engender. See Berry v. State, 575 So.2d 1 (Miss. 1990). It is well settled in this state that the admission of photographs is a matter left to the sound discretion of the trial judge and that his decision favoring admissibility will not be disturbed absent a clear abuse of that judicial discretion. Gardner v. State, 573 So.2d 716 (Miss. 1990); Sudduth v. State, 562 So.2d 67 (Miss. 1990). A review of our case law indicates that the discretion of the trial judge runs toward almost unlimited admissibility regardless of the gruesomeness, repetitiveness, and the extenuation of probative value. [emphasis supplied] Williams v. State, 544 So.2d 782, 785 (Miss. 1987). A photograph, even if gruesome, grisly, unpleasant, or even inflammatory, may still be admissible if it has probative value and its introduction into evidence serves a meaningful evidentiary purpose. Sudduth v. State, 562 So.2d 67, 69 (Miss. 1990); Lanier v. State, 533 So.2d 473, 484 (Miss. 1988); Koch v. State, 506 So.2d 269, 271 (Miss. 1987); Cardwell v. State, 461 So.2d 754, 760 (Miss. 1984). However, while a trial judge has a great deal of discretion in the admission of photographs, this discretion is not unfettered. Indiscriminate use of autopsy photographs depicting a corpse upon which a medical technician or pathologist has used the tools of his trade to puncture, sever, dissect, and otherwise traumatize body parts is ill-advised. Autopsy photographs are admissible only if they possess probative value. McNeal v. State, 551 So.2d 151, 159 (Miss. 1989). In Welch v. State, 566 So.2d 680, 685 (Miss. 1990), we found no probative value in autopsy photographs of a dissected cadaver which demonstrated neither the circumstances surrounding death, the cruelty of the crime, the location of the wounds nor the extent of the force and violence used. This Court held, on the other hand, in Marks v. State, 532 So.2d 976 (Miss. 1988), that admission of nude autopsy photographs was not an abuse of judicial discretion where the photographs clearly depicted the number, placement and multiplicity of stab wounds, the extent of the force and violence used, and where the photographs had probative value with respect to the defendant's state of mind. Two recent cases where autopsy photographs were admissible to establish cause of death are Alexander v. State, Miss.Sup. Ct. Cause No. 89-KA-0948 decided January 21, 1993 [Not Yet Reported]; and Mackbee v. State, 575 So.2d 16, 32 (Miss. 1990). A condition precedent to the admission into evidence of autopsy photographs of the victim is that the photographs have probative value, i.e., a tendency to prove some relevant fact. The photographs under scrutiny here had probative value. Accordingly, their admission into evidence was not an abuse of judicial discretion. All assignments of error are meritless. NOE'S CONVICTION OF MURDER AND SENTENCE OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT ARE AFFIRMED. HAWKINS, C.J., DAN M. LEE, P.J., and SULLIVAN, PITTMAN, BANKS, McRAE, ROBERTS and SMITH, JJ., concur.