Sharp v. State, 54525

• Decision Date: 07 March 1984
• Docket Number: No. 54525,54525
• Citation: 446 So.2d 1008
• Parties: Henderson SHARP, Jr. v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 1008

446 So.2d 1008

Henderson SHARP, Jr. v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 54525.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 7, 1984.

Mose Lee Sudduth, Jr., Columbus, for appellant.

Bill Allain, Atty. Gen. by Robert D. Findley, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and BOWLING and SULLIVAN, JJ.

SULLIVAN, Justice, for the Court:

Henderson Sharp, Jr. was indicted, tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Lowndes County, for the crime of murder. He received a sentence of life in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

The only assignment of error is the admission into evidence of three photographs of the body of the victim, W.E. Davis.

Two of the photographs show the body as it appeared in the morgue and were introduced through the testimony of the pathologist. The third photograph shows the body at the scene and was introduced through the testimony of a member of the Columbus Police Department.

The incident involved in the cause occurred on July 13, 1982. Sharp was an employee of a construction company engaged in work on a bridge on that date. During the day Sharp was dismissed from his job by the superintendent, W.E. Davis. Sharp then left the site, returning later in the day armed with a shotgun. He fired one shot which struck W.E. Davis. Sharp and Davis then engaged in a struggle which resulted in Davis falling from the bridge and landing in an excavation beneath the bridge. As a result of the gunshot wound, W.E. Davis died.

At the trial, appellant promptly objected to the admission of the photographs when they were offered, and he now argues that by admitting these photographs of the body the trial court abused its discretion as the photographs were gruesome, had no probative value, served no purpose but to inflame the jury and further that the shooting was not denied nor contradicted in any manner. Appellant further argues that the corpus delicti and the identity of the deceased had been established at the time the photographs were introduced. In taking this position, appellant relies upon our decision in Williams v. State, 354 So.2d 266 (Miss.1978).

As a general rule in this state admissibility of photographs rests within the trial court's sound discretion and their admissibility will be upheld absent a showing of abuse of discretion. Ashley v. State, 423 So.2d 1311, 1316 (Miss.1982). However, photographs of the victim should not ordinarily be admitted into evidence where the killing is not contradicted or denied and the corpus delicti and the identity of the deceased have been established. Shearer v. State, 423 So.2d 824, 827 (Miss.1982); see also, Williams v. State, supra. Additionally, gruesome photographs which have no evidentiary purpose and which only arouse the emotions of a jury should not be admitted, but the mere fact that a photograph may arouse the emotions of jurors does not render it incompetent so long as the photograph serves a...