Court Opinion

ID: 9535699
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:52:00.51605+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:18.440983
License: Public Domain

LUMPKIN, Judge,
concurring in results.
¶ 1 I concur in the decision to affirm the judgment and sentence in this casebut write separately to address the following issues.
¶ 2 The finding that child abuse murder caused by the use of unreasonable force is a general intent crime is supported by our previous cases of Wisdom v. State, 918 P.2d 384 (Okl.Cr.1996) and Tarver v. State, 651 P.2d 1332 (Okl.Cr.1982). Further, our decision in Hockersmith v. State, 926 P.2d 793 (Okl.Cr.1996) should be modified to be consistent with the decision in this case.
¶ 3 Regarding the photograph of the victim’s brain, the photo was not that of an autopsy incision, ie., damage caused by a doctor after the victim’s death. It merely revealed for observation the damage caused by Appellant to the victim. If the injury caused by Appellant would have been visible on the outside of the victim’s body, a photo of such would have been admissible, ie., burns from the wall heater. Therefore, why is a photo of an internal injury caused by Appellant not admissible? The photo in this case only showed the damage to the brain for comparison and proof of the extent of the force used against the victim. Is such a photo any more prejudicial than a photo of the burns on the victim’s body? I think not. The opinion says the photos of the burns were more prejudicial than the photo of the brain but the burn photos were admissible. It makes no sense to admit the prejudicial photos of the burns and not the sterile photo of the victim’s damaged brain.
¶ 4 Turning to the jury instruction on the aggravator of “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel”, I find any error merely a scrivener’s error in punctuation. When the instruction is read in its entirety and in context of the other instructions, it is clear the period in the first sentence should have been a comma, thus setting forth a correct statement of the law.
¶ 5 Finally, the purpose of the trial judge’s report is for this Court’s mandatory sentence review in capital cases. A review of the record in this case, including the evidence presented in mitigation, supports a finding that the sentence imposed in this ease was not the result of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor. 21 O.S.1991, § 701.13(C).