Court Opinion

ID: 9545236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:08:44.221395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:22.639093
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Justice
(concurring, but with reservation; and with comments):
Regrettably, I am unable to agree with the statement that there was error in the discussion in chambers of the proposal that the trial of Dunsdon be severed. I do not regard such a discussion between the court and counsel as to how a trial shall proceed as part of the trial itself. Furthermore, it was certainly no error as to Dunsdon; and it was he who was to be affected thereby if the request had been granted. The trial court’s rejection of the suggestion could not be otherwise than favorable to the other defendants.
Nor do I see that there was any error with respect to the picture. If a picture, or other evidence, is a fair representation of facts material to the proof of the crime charged, it is admissible; and the fact that it may be gruesome or even revolting to the sensibilities, or inflammatory of emotions, does not make it inadmissible.1 As pointed out in State v. Poe, footnote 6, main opinion, it is when there has been some distortion which has the baneful effect that error and prejudice arises. It does not accord with my idea of seeking truth and doing justice to permit one involved in a horrible crime to permit him to assert that it is so horrendous that the jury, searching for the truth, should not be permitted to see what the real facts are. In his concern to guard against any possible prejudice, the conscientious trial judge was acting in an abundance of caution. But in my opinion the picture was competent evidence and certainly no error prejudicial to the defendant occurred, whether the jurors saw it or not.
In regard to the matter of the death penalty, about which there has been so much controversy and concern I make these brief comments. It is my firm conviction that that question is not within either the prerogative or the responsibility of the judiciary. The defining of what acts shall constitute crime and the punishment therefor has always been regarded as a function of the legislative branch of government.2 When a punishment for a given crime has existed for generations without any legislative change, and the judiciary presumes to initiate any such definite and dramatic change as to abolish the penalty entirely, it seems to me uncontestably clear that this constitutes an intrusion into the legislative field. I likewise see no escape from the conclusion that to do so is to yield to the temptation to exercise an arrogance of power under an assumption that it is be*354yond control because the judicial power is the judge of its own limitations.
It is my observation that history is replete with examples which demonstrate that where uncontrolled power of any nature continues to arrogate more and more power to itself, that power is eventually destroyed. I admire and subscribe to the wisdom of Lord Macaulay who said: “Among the highest proofs of virtue is the possession of power without abusing it.” I yield to no one in respect, even reverence, for the judicial system in our United States of America, and the broad spectrum of personal liberties we have enjoyed in our well-balanced system of government, both state and national. It is my most ardent hope that the judiciary, which has the awesome power and responsibility to judge the extent of its own powers as well as of the other branches of government, will always exercise restraint to the end that the balance be kept true and the system will continue to endure.

. State v. Woods, 62 Utah 397, 220 P.2d 215 (1923); State v. Renzo, 21 Utah 2d 205, 443 P.2d 392 (1968); State v. Johnson, 25 Utah 2d . 46, 475 P.2d 543 (1970).

. 21 Am.Jur.2d, Criminal Law, Sec. 590, p. 551, and Sec. 577, p. 542; 24B C.J.S. Criminal Law, Sec. 1975.