Court Opinion

ID: 9736031
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:41:05.015116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:03.510811
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the majority opinion but write separately to emphasize that photographs of the murder victim were properly admitted. As this Court stated in Commonwealth v. McCutchen, 499 Pa. 597, 602, 454 A.2d 547, 549 (1982),
A criminal homicide trial is, by its very nature, unpleasant, and the photographic images of the injuries inflicted are merely consonant with the brutality of the subject of inquiry. To permit the disturbing nature of the images of the victim to rule the question of admissibility would result in exclusion of all photographs of the homicide victim, and would defeat one of the essential functions of a criminal trial, inquiry into the intent of the actor. There is no need to so overextend an attempt to sanitize the evidence of the condition of the body as to deprive the Commonwealth of opportunities of proof in support of the onerous burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Accord Commonwealth v. Edwards, 521 Pa. 134, 151-52, 555 A.2d 818, 827 (1989). It was plainly within the discretion of the trial court to allow photographs of the murder victim to be admitted into evidence, even though some of the photographs were gruesome in nature. Commonwealth v. McCutchen, 499 Pa. at 602, 454 A.2d at 549 (discretion of trial court governs admission of photographs).