State of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee v. Thomas Russell Leroy Derr, Defendant Below, Appellant

Summary

The court affirmed the defendant’s convictions and consecutive sentences, rejecting challenges to venue, voir dire, photograph admission, jury instructions, jury admonishments, and cumulative error. It held that the photographic-evidence analysis must proceed under the West Virginia Rules of Evidence rather than the former special rule for gruesome photographs, and it expressly overruled that former rule. The court declined to resolve the challenge involving serologist Fred Zain on direct appeal, preserving it for a more fully developed habeas proceeding.