finding no abuse of discretion in admission of multiple "gruesome" photographs of "gaping" wound of victim's abdomen because photographs depicted wound from different angles and were used by pathologist during testimony to describe nature of medical procedures performed and relevance of each photograph
How later courts described this case
- finding no abuse of discretion in admission of multiple "gruesome" photographs of "gaping" wound of victim's abdomen because photographs depicted wound from different angles and were used by pathologist during testimony to describe nature of medical procedures performed and relevance of each photograph
- ”[T]he defendant points out that the trial court expressly noted that the defense had exhausted its peremptory challenges as to the regular jurors. We accept the trial court’s determination and treat the defendant's claim of complete exhaustion to be accurate.”
- upholding death sentence for "brutal and savage slaying" and rape of fifteen-year-old girl
- defendant sentenced to death plus fifty years upon convictions for murder and rape
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
SHEPARD, C.J.,
concurs, continuing to believe that there is less justification for appellate alteration of sentence than there was when judges (rather than juries) were the final deciders of sentence. See Baer v. State, 866 N.E.2d 752, 766 (Ind.2007) (Shepard, C.J., concurring).