Opinion ID: 435251
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Former Jurors Testify

Text: 27 Byrd maintains that he was deprived of his due process right to a fair trial when two jurors from his 1972 robbery by assault trial were permitted to testify as character witnesses at his 1974 robbery by firearms trial. The record indeed indicates that two former jurors, who had no independent knowledge of Byrd other than that received while jurors at his 1972 trial, were permitted to take the stand and testify that they were familiar with Byrd's character in the community and that his character was bad. See, Record, State Trial Transcript, Vol. III, at 598-606. However, no objection to the admissibility of this evidence was made by Byrd's counsel. While Byrd's counsel made one minor objection to the form of the prosecutor's questions and once leveled a hearsay objection to the former juror's testimony, the testimony's admissibility or the juror's qualifications to testify were never objected to by defense counsel. Indeed, Byrd concedes that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals expressly refused to consider this issue since Byrd failed to make an objection to the testimony in terms of federal constitutional law. See, Record, Vol. I at 89. In light of Byrd's failure to object to the challenged testimony, we need not address the merits of this issue. Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977).