Court Opinion

ID: 9641503
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:33:22.843578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:37.940382
License: Public Domain

GALBREATH, Judge
(concurring).
I concur, although frankly I can see no purpose in admitting the gruesome pictures of the deceased with his horrible wounds other than to enflame the jury. The murder was committed in a public building and in full view of the most reputable witnesses, including the mayor of Dyer, who was forced to assist the defendant. Therefore, there could be no possible issue as to the corpus delicti, the cause of death, the position of the body or the place of entrance and exit of the bullet that could have been established better by the pictures than by *188the testimony of the medical expert and the said eye witnesses to the bizarre crime. The only issue in this case was the competency of the defendant, and nothing could be surmised from the picture that would shed any light at all on this issue.
It is apparent to me that the law now is that every relevant picture a trial judge feels should be admitted is admissible regardless of its gruesomeness or unnecessity to establish undisputed fact, and we should simply say so instead of clinging to the myth that some such pictures are inadmissible. In some twenty-five years experience in criminal law I have never once known of such a picture being excluded. If those made exhibits in this case are admissible, then no picture of the victim of a crime could ever be inadmissible.
I deplore the state of the law in Tennessee that permits such blatant interjection of material that could not help but prejudice a jury against an accused but have no choice but to follow the law. I therefore concur in the majority opinion.