Tennessee lawmakers proposed a new bill on Wednesday that could force judges to allow juries to see a living picture of a murder victim.
According to current law, judges in Tennessee do not have to allow juries to see a living picture of a murder victim. A bill proposed by state lawmakers on Wednesday hopes to change that.
In the past, higher courts have ruled that living pictures of murder victims could sway juries. However, families of murder victims argue that use of these types of photos should be a basic victim right. The mother of a 24-year-old woman murdered in Knoxville about 7 years ago agrees.
Carol Daugherty's daughter, Carrie, was murdered in a north Knoxville in 2008. On the night of March 19, 2008, Micah Johnson attacked Daughtery with chunks of brick and a shovel as she returned to the north Knoxville home she shared with Johnson's on-again, off-again girlfriend Amanda Corts. He then dragged her across the yard of the house and left her body by her SUV.
Even though Johnson was convicted of Daughtery's murder, during the 10-day trial, a jury never saw the 24-year-old victim's face.
"If she had survived, she would've been in the courtroom every day facing the monster - and she would've been allowed to - that was her right," Carol Daugherty told WRCB.
So now, Carol Daughtery is working with other victim advocates across the state to change current law. The Victim Life Photo Bill would force judges to allow juries to see pictures of victims that represent how their loved ones remember them.
"Sadly, the only thing jurors really see of victims are those rather graphic crime scene photos and autopsy photos," district attorney Neal Pinkston told WRCB.
District attorneys across the state are pushing lawmakers to pass the bill. Current rules already limit what lawyers can show at trial, and higher courts have ruled that victims' photos could make it difficult for juries to stay impartial.
"It's (the bill) not going to allow us to go into great detail of all their good deeds or all the good things that they've done, but it gives the jurors looking at the victim more than just the gruesome, grotesque way that they do now," Pinkston said.
In the end, prosecutors argue that the evidence decides the case.
A house sub-committee has already passed the bill. Next, the bill will be up for vote in the criminal justice committee.
Contributing: WRCB
