Court Opinion

ID: 9792437
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:29:24.228843+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:42.858654
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
Although I have concurred in affirming, I entertain slightly different views than those therein set forth. On the issue of admitting the posed photograph, the key words in the Court’s language in State v. Oldham, 92 Idaho 124, 130, 438 P.2d 275, 281 (1968), are “sufficient ... to require reversal.” In that case, the Court made it clear that “unless rigid necessity therefor is shown, posed pictures should not be admitted which pictures simply portray a scene arranged to support a contention advanced by the profferor.” Id. Trial courts strictly adhering to that postulate can reasonably expect to reduce the possibility of error which, either alone or coupled with other error, may require reversal. Evidence, though perhaps relevant, is not for that reason alone per se admissible.
As to the price tag issue, as a matter of plain logic, it seems almost self-evident that a price tag attached to merchandise is indicative of the value placed thereon by the owner, and a warning to a potential purloiner of its declared value. I would not adopt the view that its admissibility can be upheld upon the basis of our opinion in Curiel v. Mingo, 100 Idaho 303, 597 P.2d 26 (1979), a decision in a civil controversy in which I dissented. Nor would I vote to uphold the introduction of the price tag on the basis of the Court’s opinion in State v. White, 102 Idaho 924, 644 P.2d 318 (1982), a criminal case wherein the Court affirmed utilizing the business records exception to the hearsay rule (I.C. § 9-414) — also a case in which I was compelled to file a dissenting opinion.