Cite as 290 Ark. 223 (1986)
promoting a general rule of admissibility which essentially allows automatic acceptance of all the photographs of the victim and crime scene the prosecution can offer.
Other states have been equally liberal in the admission of similar photographs where they were relevant to proof of the state's case. Like we do now, many have found it necessary, however, to stem the resulting influx of inflammatory pictures where the claims of relevance were increasingly tenuous in light of the prejudicial nature of the photographs. E.g., Cavazos v. State, 365 S.W.2d 178 (Tex. Cr. App. 1963); Borroum v. State, 168 Tex. Cr. 552, 331 S.W.2d 314 (1960); Davis v. State, 165 Tex. Cr. 456, 308 S.W.2d 880 (1958); People v. Landry, 54 Ill. 3d 159, 368 N.E.2d 1334 (1977); People v. Garlick, 46 Ill. 3d 216, 360 N.E.2d 1121 (1977) and People v. Lear, 38 Ill. 2d 216, 230 N.E.2d 827 (1967).
In State v. Bucanis, 26 N.J. 45, 138 A.2d 739 (1958) cert. denied, 357 U.S. 910 (1958), where graphic autopsy photographs showing the gunshot wounds of the victim were admitted in the trial of the deceased's husband, the New Jersey court described a similar tendency to abuse the discretion given the trial courts. After a review of New Jersey cases the court stated:
These cases contained broad pronouncements which, perhaps, gave too much encouragement to the thought that the prosecution could use at will any and all pictures at a murder trial as long as they possessed some relevancy. Each decision, however, presumed, of course, that the trial judge would continue to exercise a modicum of sound judicial discretion and exclude any picture that was unusually gruesome or repulsive and had little evidential value, admitting only those which would be of significant assistance to the jury in its deliberations as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant and which were not unduly prejudicial.
The fact that a photograph may have some probative force is not always completely determinative of its admissibility. There are cases where the logical relevance of such an exhibit will unquestionably be overwhelmed by its inherently prejudicial qualities which will impair the defendant's right to a fair and impartial trial. When
