Court Opinion

ID: 9847174
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:55:13.855858+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:02.524243
License: Public Domain

Fletcher, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent as to Division 6 and the judgment of the majority opinion.
The trial court admitted seven color photographs showing the condition and position of the victim’s body after its discovery in a wooded area. Appellant objected to the admission of only one of these photographs on the grounds that its prejudicial effect outweighed its probative value.
This grisly photograph, depicting the mutilation of the victim’s face through decomposition and animal and insect infestation, is spectacularly gruesome and is clearly not evidence essential to the proof of the state’s case. Ramey v. State, 250 Ga. 455, 457-58 (298 SE2d 503) (1983) (Weltner, J., dissenting). Rather, it shows the ashen, partially skeletal remains of the victim’s skull with maggots around the socket where her left eye used to be and around other portions of her head.
The trial court admitted the photograph along with others of her body as it understood “these are different views of the body at the scene”; however, in my opinion, its introduction is so prejudicial and so inflammatory as to constitute reversible error.
The material facts the State contends this photograph establishes not only could have been proven by other witnesses available to the State, including the person who discovered the body and the investigating officers, but were in fact established by the testimony of the pathologist who performed the autopsy. Therefore, the only purpose for the introduction of the photograph appears to have been to inflame the jury both during the trial and during its deliberation. Fundamental fairness demands more from our system of justice, therefore, I would reverse.
I am authorized to state that Justice Weltner and Justice Bell join in this dissent.
*159Decided May 10, 1990.
Bailey & Bearden, J. Lane Bearden, for appellant.
Darrell E. Wilson, District Attorney, Mickey R. Thacker, Assistant District Attorney, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Richard C. Litwin, for appellee.