Opinion ID: 1531299
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the admission of the shirt worn by the deceased

Text: It is said the trial court erred in admitting into evidence Exhibit S-33, a blue shirt said to have been worn by the deceased at the time he was shot. It is claimed there was no positive identification since the doctor who performed the autopsy and in whose presence the shirt was removed from the body of the deceased could not specifically identify it but said: It resembled this shirt very much but I could not say this was the shirt. He also testified that he gave all of the deceased's possessions, including the clothing which had been removed from Dr. Pontery, to Martin, a detective in the New Jersey State Police Department, in a pasteboard carton. Martin testified he received the clothes from Dr. Costello, amongst which were an undershirt and an outershirt. He identified an outershirt shown to him by the prosecutor as the one which he received from Dr. Costello and which he turned over to Detective Lea. This shirt was marked S-33 for identification. Lea testified he gave the shirt to Mr. Duffy, a chemist employed by the New Jersey State Police, who examined the shirt and returned it to Lea. The shirt was subsequently marked Exhibit S-33 in evidence in the trial. Condit, an attendant at the Dover Morgue where Dr. Pontery's body was taken, testified he assisted Dr. Costello in performing an autopsy on August 7 and removed the clothes from the body. The clothes were placed in a box by him and Dr. Costello. He testified that only one corpse was undresed at the morgue on that day. Doris Pontery in her testimony described the shirt her father was wearing on August 7 and the shirt she described was identical to Exhibit S-33. The evidence seems to indicate positive identification of S-33 and there was ample evidence in reference to it to justify its admission in evidence.