Lawrence v. State
Lawrence v. State
Opinion
The defendant was indicted and convicted for the first degree assault of his eight year old son. Section
"Q. Now, let me stop you a minute. You say he told James to go get the gun. *Page 989 Is that your little boy, James Lawrence, Jr.?
"A. Uh-huh.
"Q. And what happened then?
"A. And so James told him, said, `I ain't getting no gun, Daddy. Every time you get drunk you be wanting to get the gun.'
"Q. `Every time you get drunk you be wanting to get —'
"A. `Every time you get drunk you be wanting to get the gun.'
"MR. BRASSELL (Defense Counsel): Now, we object to this type statement.
"THE COURT: Overruled."
Specific objections or motions are generally necessary before the ruling of the trial judge is subject to review, unless the ground is so obvious that the trial court's failure to act constitutes prejudicial error. Ward v. State,
After a question is asked and a responsive answer given, an objection comes too late, and the trial court will not be put in error for overruling the objection. Chambers v. State,
In addition, when the victim, James Lawrence, Jr., took the stand the following took place on direct examination:
"Q. He had the gun in your mother's stomach, and what happened then?
"A. And then I told him to — I told him every time he gets drunk he always comes home and gets that gun.
"Q. You told him that every time he gets drunk he always comes home and gets that gun?
"A. Yes, sir."
These questions and answers came in without objection or motion to exclude.
Prejudicial error may not be predicated on admission of evidence which has been admitted without objection or motion to exclude at some other stage of trial. Langford v. State,
State's exhibit 1 consisted of a large piece of poster paper with a diagram of the walls and two entrances of a house indicated. In *Page 990 and around the diagram are seven photographs taken on the night of the shooting. Some of the pictures represent different angles of the same area of the house.
In three of the pictures, smudges or droplets of blood were photographed on the floor. Although we do not find these photographs gruesome or revolting, a finding to the contrary, in and of itself, would constitute no ground for excluding the photographs from evidence. Palmore v. State,
In his brief the defendant also contends that the photographic exhibit does not accurately represent the scene of the crime.
At trial, defense counsel's objection was:
"Your Honor, we object to the introduction of those pictures. The blood is shown to influence the jury, just to inflame them, and we object. This case is tragic enough and we feel like that's the reason they want to show it to the jury."
Where a specific objection to admission of evidence is made at trial, all other grounds are waived. Howell v. State,
The ground that the photographs misrepresented the scene of the crime is without merit. After examining the pictures and exhibit as a whole, this Court finds that the pictures were not misleading as contended, but are merely shots of different angles of portions of the house. Even though there were two pictures of the fireplace, and three pictures of the bullet fired, oral evidence presented by the State clearly indicated that there was only one fireplace in the house and only one bullet fired.
Defendant also claims that the photographs lacked probative value. The fact that a photograph has very little probative value does not prevent its admission in evidence where the photograph will tend to shed light on, strengthen or illustrate the truth of other testimony, or where the photograph has reasonable tendency to prove or disprove some material fact or issue in the case, or is used to identify the deceased or to illustrate the location, nature or extent of a wound. Gilmorev. State,
Here the photographs depicting the blood of the child on the floor of the house were properly admitted into evidence as illustrative of violence and shooting employed. Arnold, supra;Green v. State,
This Court has carefully reviewed the record as required by law and have found no error prejudicial to the substantial rights of the defendant. The judgment of the Circuit Court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
All Judges concur. *Page 991
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James Lee Lawrence, Sr. v. State.
- Cited By
- 43 cases
- Status
- Published