This is an appeal from a conviction of first degree murder for killing Gordon D. Zuck with an iron bar. 1 The jury fixed Farris’s sentence at life imprisonment.
The appellant objected to the State’s introduction of a color photograph which depicted the victim’s unsightly remains, i. e., massive head wounds. The appellant argued that the photograph was introduced solely to create bias and inflame the minds of the jury. The tests for the admission of a photograph in a criminal case are that photographs must tend to prove or disprove some disputed or material issue, or to illustrate or elucidate some other relevant fact or evidence, or to corroborate or disprove some other evidence offered or to be offered.
Baldwin v. State,
Likewise, photographs of the scene are admissible in evidence that the jury may get a correct idea of the entire surroundings.
Pilley v. State,
The colored photograph in question is clearly ghastly; but, gruesomeness is no grounds for excluding this type of evidence, if relevant.
McKee v. State,
In
Powell v. State,
The former Court of Appeals rejected the thrust of
State v. Jones,
That the evidentiary character of the photograph was cumulative merely does not render it inadmissible.
Reedy v. State,
The photograph here admitted saved many words of description. That it reinforced the testimony against the defendant was within the scope of the risk he ran in his enterprise.
We have considered the entire record under Code 1940, T. 15, § 389, including the following:
a) The clerk’s certificate; [T. 7, § 767]
b) The court reporter’s certificate;
c) The statement of the organization of the court; (former Sup.Ct.R. 52)
d) The indictment (caption, charge, conclusions, and required endorsements);
e) Judgment entry (arraignment, presence of counsel, twelve jurors, empanelling and swearing of jury, verdict, adjudication of guilt, allocutus, sentence and notice of appeal);
*392 f) Proceedings on the motion for new trial, if any; and
g) Each ruling of the trial judge adverse to the appellant — Rule A, Ct.Cr.App. —49 A A XXI and Rule 28(a)(7) ARAP.
From this the judgment below is
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. See the companion appeals of
Richard Zuck
(
