Justia Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Opinion Summaries

Appellant filed a pre-trial application for writ of habeas corpus where, after the jury was empaneled and sworn in his misdemeanor prosecution for driving while intoxicated, but before trial commenced, one of the jurors became temporarily indisposed for health reasons and the trial court ultimately declared a mistrial over appellant's objection. At issue was whether the court of appeals erred in holding that the trial court should not have granted the mistrial without first exploring the option of proceeding with trial with only five jurors and where the appellant expressed at least a tentative willingness to waive his constitutional right to a full complement of six. The court affirmed the court of appeals and held that there was no manifest necessity for the trial court to declare a mistrial without at least exploring the option to wait a week, possibly then to conduct the trial with five jurors. So long as the appellant could waive his constitutional right to a six-member jury, it could not be said that it was impossible to arrive at a fair verdict, impossible as a practical matter to continue with the trial, or that reversal on appeal would automatically ensue.

Defendant was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death after murdering a 5-year-old girl and abandoning her partially burned body in an alley. Defendant raised 49 issues on appeal regarding the sufficiency of future dangerousness; limitations on voir dire questioning; denial of challenges for cause; cumulative voir dire error; exclusion of testimony; Fifth Amendment claims; exclusion of parole evidence; denial of parole instruction; improper jury argument; and death penalty statutes. The court affirmed the conviction and held that defendant's points of error were all without merit.