Arrington v. Texas

The issue this case presented for the Court of Criminal Appeals' review centered on whether a defendant suffers egregious harm from erroneous jury instructions permitting a non-unanimous verdict when the jury faced with two diametrical positions reaches multiple verdicts signifying, in the aggregate, its belief in the credibility of the State’s evidence and its disbelief in the defendant’s evidence. The State’s argued that the court of appeals erred by determining that erroneous jury instructions permitting non-unanimous jury verdicts caused egregious harm to appellant Charles Arrington. The court of appeals' judgment reversed appellant's six convictions, including five convictions for aggravated sexual assault of a child and one conviction for indecency with a child by contact. The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that, by improperly failing to consider all of the evidence that was admitted at trial and by finding dispositive the jury’s inability to reach a verdict on a single count without considering other rational reasons for the lack of a verdict on that single count, the court of appeals erroneously determined that the faulty instructions egregiously harmed appellant. The Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals and remanded this case for consideration of appellant’s other issues on appeal. View "Arrington v. Texas" on Justia Law