Court Opinion

ID: 9599124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:14:30.435456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:44.086090
License: Public Domain

BRETT, Presiding Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
While I agree with the majority opinion that this case must be reversed due to error present at trial, I find that I cannot agree with the opinion’s treatment of the appellant’s assertion that the use at trial of photographs of the victim was error. In my opinion neither the eight color slides depicting specific wounds on the victim’s body at the morgue, nor the sixteen by twenty inch black and white photograph of the victim at the scene of the crime should have been admitted into evidence.
The test used by this Court to determine whether pictures of a homicide victim made subsequent to his death are admissible into evidence is that
... they are inadmissible unless they are relevant to some material issue and would reasonably assist the jury in the determination of the defendant’s guilt, and this relevancy must outweigh the danger that the jury would substitute emotion for reason as a basis of their verdict. Oxendine v. State, 335 P.2d 940 (Okl.Cr.1958).
The State argues that the eight color slides were necessary to illustrate the testimony of the medical examiner. However, the medical examiner testified that the wounds depicted in the color slides would not be difficult to describe to the jury without slides and further were not necessary to explain the cause of death. Further, there was no issue or controversy as to the cause of death. These color slides could not aid in the determination of the appellant’s guilt, but could only serve to prejudice his right to a fair trial by their gruesome nature and size. The majority opinion mistakenly relies on Bills v. State, 585 P.2d 1366 (Okl.Cr.1978), to support the admission of these slides into evidence. However, in that case, the photographs introduced of the victim’s body were “small.” I would find the slides in this case inadmissible. Oxendine, supra at 943. See also my dissent to Utt v. State, 595 P.2d 448 (Okl.Cr.1979).
As for the sixteen by twenty inch black and white photograph taken of the victim at the scene of the crime, there may be some relevance to show the position of the body at the scene. However, I find that because of the large size of the picture, this relevancy is outweighed by the danger that the jury would substitute emotion for reason as a basis of their verdict. Oxendine, supra, at 943.