Court Opinion

ID: 9584473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:48:40.307097+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:07:56.480356
License: Public Domain

Gregory, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur specially in the per curiam opinion. I do not believe admissibility turns on whether or not the State may introduce into evidence a victim’s ear or gruesome photographs. Such evidence is governed by the rule of relevancy balanced against prejudicial effect. The approach here is different. The standard to be used by the jury is the objective reasonable person. This objective reasonable person must be placed under all the relevant circumstances present in the case at hand. If the circumstance in question happened to be the defendant’s missing arm the objective standard would surely be applied taking into consideration the circumstance of the missing arm. Here the circumstance (a previous incident of having been cut with a knife in a similar situation) is perhaps more remote than a missing arm. Yet, it is a circumstance which ought to be taken into account in applying the objective standard. A safeguard against opening the door to every prior occurrence and remote event is that each must pass the test of relevancy.