Court Opinion

ID: 9698225
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:45:17.498347+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:39.482128
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the decision of the Court. I am unable, however, to agree fully with the rationale of the opinion upholding the admission of the photograph taken at the gravesite and supposedly depicting skeletal remains. The picture, which I have examined, appears to me to have had but marginal relevancy; it proved little or nothing as to the conduct or state of mind of the defendant, nor, so far as I can see, did it supply or corroborate any other element of the case that the Commonwealth had to prove. But if on this account the admission of the photograph was error, I believe the error was harmless; I can see no prejudice to any interest of appellant’s which would justify reversal.*
*340The Court concludes that the challenged photograph was admissible as both relevant and non-prejudicial. In so doing, the majority purports to apply the test enunciated in Commonwealth v. Petrakovich, 459 Pa. 511, 329 A.2d 844 (1974). Because in my view the language of the majority opinion is not an accurate application of our holding in that case, I feel constrained to write this separate statement.
As Mr. Justice O’Brien notes, the challenged photograph is a single black and white picture showing the area where the victim’s skeletons were found; the remains themselves are barely discernible. I should think that these characteristics of the exhibit are answer enough to any assertion, such as that made by Mr. Justice Manderino in dissent, that photographs of human remains must be deemed inflammatory per se. The majority, however, places reliance on its appraisal that “[t]he photograph should not be viewed as particularly inflammatory.” Ante at 337. In making this statement the majority seems to overlook the fact that the Petrakovich test consists of two steps, viz., determining whether a photograph proffered as an exhibit is inflammatory or not, and, if it is, proceeding to determine whether it has such evidentiary value that its “need clearly outweighs the likelihood of inflaming the minds and passions of the jury.” Petrakovich, supra, 459 Pa. at 521, 329 A.2d at 852, quoting Commonwealth v. Powell, 428 Pa. 275, 279, 241 A.2d 119, 121 (1968). Instead, the majority seems to be saying that a photograph’s evidentiary value is to be balanced in each case against various subtle gradations of inflammatory potential. With this I cannot agree; to view the Petrakovich test in this manner is to adopt in part the notion that “photographs are inflammatory per se ” — a conclusion that Petrakovich explicitly rejected. See, 459 Pa. at 522, 329 A.2d 844. See also, Commonwealth v. Hilton, 461 Pa. 93, 101, 334 A.2d 648, 650 (1975) (Pomeroy, J., concurring, joined by Jones, C. J., and Eagen, O’Brien, and Nix, JJ.).
In the instant case the conclusion is inescapable that the photograph which was admitted simply was not inflammatory at all; indeed, the “skeletal remains” were barely distin*341guishable as such. Thus the inquiry in passing on admissibility becomes whether the photograph “has relevance and can assist the jury’s understanding of the facts of the case before it.” Petrakovich, supra, 459 Pa. at 521, 329 A.2d at 849.
While, as stated above, I have some difficulty in finding relevance, the trial court was clearly correct in not excluding the exhibit because of any gruesome or emotionally exciting aspect. Thus I concur in this Court’s upholding of the challenged ruling.

 The trial court gave the jury cautionary instructions about the pictures, thus reducing to a minimum any possible prejudice to the defendant. See Commonwealth v. Martinez, 475 Pa. 331, 380 A.2d 747, 752-53 (1977) (Pomeroy, J., concurring). The court also excluded three other black and white photographs of the gravesite because they were cumulative.