Thomas v. Texas

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Appellant was convicted of second-degree felony possession of marijuana. She initially preserved error by way of a motion to suppress the evidence, which she claimed had been seized during the course of an illegally prolonged roadside detention. But when the evidence was later proffered by the State during the punishment portion of the unitary proceeding following her non-negotiated plea of guilty to the charge, her attorney expressly declared that he had "no objection" to the admission of the evidence. The trial court nevertheless manifested its understanding that the appellant persisted in her wish to appeal the denial of her pretrial motion to suppress and expressly granted her permission to do so. The court of appeals refused to reach the merits of her claim, relying upon longstanding precedent that her attorney had "waived" the previously preserved objection to the evidence for purposes of appeal when he declared that he had "no objection" to its admission. Given the record as a whole, the Supreme Court concluded court of appeals erred by stating that when appellant stated she had "no objection" to the introduction of certain evidence during the punishment portion of the proceedings in this case, she "waived" appellate review of the propriety of the trial court's ruling on her pretrial motion to suppress. Accordingly, the Court reversed the court of appeals and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Thomas v. Texas" on Justia Law