Texas v. Gutierrez

After the State’s first witness, Officer Ruben Ramirez, was sworn-in and the trial court asked him to take a seat, a juror said, “Judge, I know [the witness]. I went to school with him.” The witness responded, “Yeah, I know him.” The jury was excused, and the juror was questioned by the judge and both parties. The trial judge made a finding that the juror was not biased (and that the trial would proceed with twelve jurors) but told the parties that they could agree to proceed with only eleven jurors. Defense counsel said that he wanted to proceed with eleven and that, if the juror was not removed, he would request a mistrial. The State agreed to the defense’s request, and the juror was removed. The eleven-member jury acquitted defendant Rene Gutierrez of two charges but convicted him of three others. Gutierrez moved for new trial arguing, that his attorney was ineffective because he advised Gutierrez to proceed with eleven jurors, and but for counsel’s erroneous advice, he would have requested a mistrial so a new jury of twelve could be impaneled. The trial court granted Gutierrez’s new-trial motion without entering any relevant findings of fact or conclusions of law. The State appealed, and the court of appeals agreed with Gutierrez that the trial court did not abuse its discretion. According to the court of appeals, a mistrial likely would have been granted had one been requested, because the trial court could have reasonably found that Gutierrez’s right to a jury trial by twelve was abridged and that he was harmed by that violation. The question in this case was whether the court of appeals erred when it affirmed the trial court’s granting of a new trial on ineffective-assistance-of-counsel grounds. The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded the court of appeals did err because the trial court should not have granted the motion. As a result, the court of appeals was reversed, the trial court’s order granting a new trial was vacated, and order the judgments of convictions and associated sentences reinstated. View "Texas v. Gutierrez" on Justia Law