Opinion ID: 1264824
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Admission of Autopsy Photographs Was Proper

Text: Elmore claims the trial court erred in admitting autopsy slides, asserting they were irrelevant, cumulative, and highly prejudicial. During a pretrial hearing regarding the admission of such slides, the medical examiner who performed Kristy's autopsy described how each offered slide would assist him in explaining his testimony. The trial court weighed the admissibility of the slides with care and ultimately held the offered slides were not gruesome, each was more probative than prejudicial and together were not cumulative. The State originally offered 12 slides. Eight slides were ruled admissible, one of which was cropped. The decision to admit photographic evidence lies within the sound discretion of the trial court. Lord, 117 Wash.2d at 870, 822 P.2d 177. Where the decision of the trial court is a matter of discretion, it will not be disturbed on review except on a clear showing of abuse of discretion, that is, discretion manifestly unreasonable or exercised on untenable grounds or for untenable reasons. State ex rel. Carroll v. Junker, 79 Wash.2d 12, 26, 482 P.2d 775 (1971). In short, discretion is abused only where it can be said no reasonable man would take the view adopted by the trial court. State v. Blight, 89 Wash.2d 38, 41, 569 P.2d 1129 (1977). Here, it cannot be said the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the autopsy photographs given the medical examiner's testimony that such slides would aid the jury in understanding his testimony. See Lord, 117 Wash.2d at 870-72, 822 P.2d 177; State v. Pirtle, 127 Wash.2d 628, 653-55, 676, 904 P.2d 245 (1995), cert. denied, 518 U.S. 1026, 116 S.Ct. 2568, 135 L.Ed.2d 1084 (1996). The defense here obviously wants to sanitize the events of a brutal crime by dictating what evidence of the victim's death the State is entitled to present. [A] bloody, brutal crime cannot be explained to a jury in a lily-white manner'. Lord, 117 Wash.2d at 871, 822 P.2d 177. Elmore has failed to show the trial court abused its discretion in the handling of the slides.