Court Opinion

ID: 9632096
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:02:53.067101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:08.694800
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(concurring) :
I concur in affirming the conviction, but desire to make the following comments about the two issues raised:
As to the defendant not being given a speedy trial: (1) After he was charged and arraigned in this case there was in fact no unusual or unreasonable delay; (2) there is no indication that he asked for any speedier trial than he got; and (3) there is no indication that he was in any way prejudiced by delay.
As to receiving the pictures in evidence: The main opinion correctly points out that they were competent and probative of essential facts, which would seem sufficient to dispose of that issue. However, inasmuch as reference is made to the recent case of State v. Poe, 21 Utah 2d 113, 441 P.2d 512, and its possible application here, some further explanation seems justified.
The question of admissibility of evidence is dependent, among other things, upon the issues in dispute and upon which proof is required. In that regard there is a vital difference between the Poe case and the instant one. In the Poe case there was no question whatever as to whether the deceased was shot with intent to kill, nor as to where or how he was shot. The question was whether the defendant shot him. The facts as to where and how the deceased was shot were not only uncontested, but were amply illustrated by certain black and white pictures taken at the scene. But the prosecution went beyond any necessity of proof and introduced the offending colored slides relating to something quite separate and apart from the crime, and which the defendant had nothing to do with causing: the gory procedures of a pathologist. Insofar' as the writer can see, they formed no neces*217sary proof to any disputed issue in that case. This lack of probative purpose, •coupled with the fact that there was a •definite likelihood that they would have the effect of suggesting brutality in the •crime and thus of provoking resentment and inflaming the passions of the jury against the accused, (which likelihood incidentally appears to have been borne out by the verdict), led us to believe that it was prejudicial error to admit the pictures in the Poe case.
By way of contrast: In the instant case there was a dramatically different situation. The death came about as a result of an orgy of drinking and fighting and a great deal of physical violence. There were critical questions as to whether there had been any intent to kill, and as to the cause of death. On those issues the pictures objected to in this case were probative as to acts committed by the defendant upon the victim.
It must be agreed that pictures which may provoke antipathy against the accused should be looked at with particular care in all murder cases because the jury has two major issues to determine: the guilt of the defendant, and if guilty, whether he should suffer death or have life imprisonment. And such pictures should not be admitted unless they are essential proof on disputed issues. However, as set forth in the authorities cited in the main opinion, where they are essential to the proof on disputed issues, as they were here, the mere fact that they are offensive to sensibilities should not make them inadmissible. See particularly State v. Woods, 62 Utah 397, 220 P. 215; State v. Russell, 106 Utah 116, 145 P.2d 1003; and see also discussion in McKee v. State, 33 Ala.App. 171, 31 So.2d 656, and authorities therein cited.
For the reasons above set forth, I concur in the holding that under the circumstances in this case receiving the pictures in evidence was not error, and in affirming the conviction.
CALLISTER, J., concurs in the concurring opinion of CROCKETT, C. J.