Court Opinion

ID: 9643478
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:30:37.686512+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:00.800949
License: Public Domain

ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
McDONALD, Presiding Judge.
Appellant’s able counsel, by his motion and oral argument, urges that this Court erred in holding that certain slides and photographs of the nude, two-year old dead child were admissible to solve certain disputed issues raised in the trial of the case. Appellant originally relied upon the opinion of this Court in Burns v. State, 388 S.W.2d 690, and he now contends that our opinion in this case is contrary to Burns and that the law is in a state of confusion. We have carefully reviewed our holding in Burns and our opinion in this cause on original submission. We think that appellant’s problem with these two cases lies in the fact that in the Burns case appellant took the stand as a witness in his own behalf, while in this case appellant did not testify. We think it immaterial as to the source of the testimony adduced by an appellant so long as the adduced testimony does create a disputed fact issue. We fail to see how it could make any difference if this disputed issue of fact were created by the appellant’s own testimony, or, as in this case, from testimony brought out by appellant’s counsel from other witnesses, either on direct or cross-examination. Were we to make such a distinction as appellant urges, we would be licensing him to go to any lengths in creating disputed fact issues and then place the State in the hopeless position of not being able to solve or refute these issues. We remain convinced that this cause was correctly disposed of in our original opinion.
Appellant’s motion for rehearing is overruled.
MORRISON, J., remains convinced that the pictures were inadmissible.