Opinion ID: 1585598
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Did the Trial Court Err in Admitting Photographs Depicting both the Victim on an Autopsy Table and Bullet Holes Found at the Shooting Scene?

Text: Alford would have us find error in the admission at trial of a photograph of the victim's body taken as the body lay on the autopsy table. The photograph depicts the fatal bullet wound on the far left side of the victim's chest. Admission of photographs of the deceased are generally within the discretion of the trial court. Cabello v. State, 471 So.2d 332, 341-42 (Miss. 1985); Sharp v. State, 446 So.2d 1008, 1009 (Miss. 1984). Alford cites our cases stating that such photographs have no probative value and should not be admitted when the killing is not disputed and the corpus delicti and the victim's identify are established. Williams v. State, 354 So.2d 266 (Miss. 1978); Stevenson v. State, 325 So.2d 113 (Miss. 1975). At the time the photograph was offered into evidence the killing had not been admitted. Though Alford later put on evidence admitting that he fired the fatal shot, Alford put the state to its proof concerning the killing. We are concerned with the probativeness of the photograph, Sharp, 446 So.2d at 1009, but we cannot say that the photograph totally lacked probative value at the time it was introduced. The depiction of the location of the deceased's wounds was a useful evidentiary purpose, Stevens v. State, 458 So.2d 726, 729 (Miss. 1984); Clingon v. State, 293 So.2d 823 (Miss. 1974). Here the depiction of the wound was relevant to show that the deceased, Gillman Giles, was not facing the direction from which the shots were fired, thereby negating any defense that Giles was an aggressor from whom appellant had a right to defend himself. See Kelly v. State, 463 So.2d 1070 (Miss. 1985). We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion because the photograph here did have some probative value. Turning to Alford's complaint about photographs depicting bullet holes at and around Betty's Grocery, we again find no error. As with the decision to admit other photographs, the decision to admit photographs depicting the crime scene are within the trial court's discretion. Kelly, 463 So.2d at 1074-75; Dufour v. State, 453 So.2d 337 (Miss. 1984); Harris v. State, 413 So.2d 1016 (Miss. 1982). There were many shots fired during this fatal incident, and we cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the photographs into evidence.