Court Opinion

ID: 9674287
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:26:05.437026+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:26.719796
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Justice
(dissenting).
I am in perfect agreement with Mr. Justice Pope’s dissenting opinion wherein he challenges the holding of the Court that the preponderance of the evidence standard is to be applied in determining the question *629of whether a minor charged with a major crime, as here, is a delinquent. This dissent is concerned only with a question not discussed, which is whether or not the Respondent, George Rivera Santana, has been afforded constitutional procedural due process where, admittedly, the Petitioner, The State of Texas, was permitted over objection to file a Trial Amendment on the day of trial, whereby the offense orginally charged, that of assault with intent to commit rape, was abandoned and for the first time, the Respondent was charged in the pleadings with the greater offense of rape. As stated in the Court’s opinion, the State first filed its petition on December 13, 1966, alleging that Santana had committed an assault with intent to rape. Thereafter, the State filed two amended pleadings alleging the same act of delinquency, i.e., assault with intent to commit rape. No objection was lodged against these amendments. However, the following proceedings demonstrate conclusively that Santana was deprived of the safeguards afforded by the Bill of Rights, especially notice as provided in the Sixth Amendment. The record shows that Santana was charged with an infamous crime, rape, and put to trial without adequate notice, on February 2, 1967. Prior to that date, the State’s pleadings charged that Santana “has heretofore, in Lubbock County, Texas, on the 8th day of December, 1966, violated a penal law of this State of the grade of a felony, in and upon Frone Mintz, a woman, did make an assault with the intent then and there to commit the offense of rape upon Frone Mintz by then and there without the consent of the said Frone Mintz attempt by force, threat, and fraud, to have carnal knowledge of her, the said Frone Mintz.” Emphasis added.
On February 2, 1967, the date of trial, the trial court, over objection, permitted the State to file a trial amendment so as to allege the following:
“The said child is a delinquent child by reason of the existence of the following facts: The said George Rivera Santana has heretofore, in Lubbock County, Texas, on the 8th day of December, 1966, violated a penal law of this State of the grade of a felony, in and upon Frone Mintz, a woman, with the intent, then and there commit the offense of rape upon Frone Mintz by then and there, without consent of the said Frone Mintz, by force and threats, have carnal knowledge of her, the said Frone Mintz.” Emphasis added.
The prayer following this charge reads, in part:
“Wherefore, premises considered, it is respectfully prayed that this cause be set down for a hearing on some day and date and at a place to be fixed by the Court, * * *.”
The trial court, in lieu of setting the hearing sufficiently in the future to give Santana proper notice and time to prepare his defense to the new penal offense, overruled Santana’s objections and exceptions to the filing of the trial amendment and proceeded with the trial on February 2, 1967. The objections were:
“George Santana would further object to the amendment of said charge for the reason that said petition charging him with said offense [rape] was never served upon him prior to the time this case was called for trial, and therefore, has had insufficient time to prepare said case, and the said George Santana claims surprise, and for said reason said George Santana is prejudiced, and unable to adequately prepare his defense to same.”
The trial court attached the following qualification to Respondent’s Bill of Exceptions :
“The above and foregoing objections to State’s Trial Amendment, having been duly and timely presented to the Court, before any pleadings were read to the jury, and having been considered by the Court, the said objections as above stated are hereby qualified by the Court as follows : Prior to the commencement of the hearing on February 2, 1967, and before the case had been called, the State filed *630said Trial Amendment now objected to and the Court informed the child’s counsel in open court, that the Court would consider any objection, but that if counsel for the child were surprised and/or had not had time to prepare for the child’s case, that the Court would continue this case and set it down for trial at a later time before a jury, and the child’s counsel did decline to ask for a continuance of the trial of this case, and it proceeded to trial. All of the above objections, as set out in the qualifications, having been considered by the Court, the same are overruled, to which action and ruling of the Court George Rivera Santana in open court, through his attorneys, excepted.” Emphasis added.
This action of the trial court was harmful to the child involved in that the Court deprived Santana of a fair trial even under recognized Civil procedure much less under criminal procedure. Be that as it may, Respondent’s exception to the qualification rendered the qualification ineffective. Therefore, the qualification should not prejudice Respondent’s rights.
As said by Mr. Justice Black in his concurring opinion in Gault,
“[t]he juvenile court planners envisaged a system that would practically immunize juveniles from ‘punishment’ for ‘crimes’ in an effort to save them from youthful indiscretions and stigmas due to criminal charges or convictions. I agree with the Court, however, that this exalted ideal has failed of achievement since the beginning of the system.”
This is true in the present case. There was no justification for the trial court, in open court, placing Santana in the position of acknowledging that he was guilty of rape. When the trial court stated in the so called qualification that counsel for Santana declined to plead surprise to the charge of rape, it very well created the impression that Santana knew from December 8, 1966, that he was guilty of rape even though he was only charged with assault with intent to commit rape. Under the theory that in civil cases pleadings in Texas may be amended “at such time as not to operate as a surprise to the opposite party”; provided that if the amendment is tendered within seven days of the trial, leave to amend may be granted by the trial court, “[unless] such amendment will operate as a surprise to the opposite party.” Rule 63, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Santana has been convicted of a felony without regard to the Constitution which requires “that he be tried in accordance with the guarantees of all the provisions of the Bill of Rights made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment.” This child was entitled to no less than that afforded an adult. While it' is true that Santana had attorneys and had an inadequate trial by jury in the sense that he was prosecuted under civil procedure, nevertheless, the power of the State denied to him the safeguards, such as that which reads:
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right * * * to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.”
He was deprived of the right to stand before a properly organized jury of his peers and in response to the Court’s arraignment, plead “not guilty”.
There is another feature of this case which needs emphasis. The State of Texas is Petitioner here. The record is here without a statement of facts. This Court has no way of knowing what prompted the State to change its pleadings. Did the alleged injured person relate facts to the officers in the first instance that excluded the offense of rape ? Is it possible that she related facts showing that rape was committed, but the officials concluded to limit the charge to the lesser offense? Did she suddenly decide on February 2, 1967, nearly two months after the date of the alleged offense, to add to the story she first told? If this conviction is allowed to stand, the Court will never know the true answer to these questions. Santana, if tried under the procedure contemplated and specifically *631granted by provisions of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments which the Fourteenth Amendment makes applicable to the States, would have been in a rightful position to compel the State to discharge its burden of proving his guilt by legal and competent evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. It is argued that Santana did not request the Clerk to send with the record a statement of facts. That is just the point. No appellate court can adequately consider or should want to consider an appeal in a criminal case of this nature without a statement of facts. Whereas, in a civil proceeding, the parties are bound by the strict rules governing appeals.
The Court of Civil Appeals for the Seventh Supreme Judicial District of Texas, at Amarillo, reversed the judgment of the trial court on other grounds and did not pass upon the question herein considered. However, the Court said:
“ * * * the Supreme Court in Gault clearly sets out the requirements of ‘notices of charges’ in the following language : ‘Notice, to comply with due process requirements, must be given sufficiently in advance of scheduled court proceedings so that reasonable opportunity to prepare will be afforded, and it must set forth the alleged misconduct with particularity.’ ”
A continuance to a later date would have merely resulted in a trial under Civil rules wholly inadequate to meet the requirements of the Constitution of the United States.
This dissent seeks to supplement the forceful dissent filed by Mr. Justice Pope by bringing into focus a question which has been paramount from the beginning of this case. I believe it to be the law of the land that when a minor is charged with a crime, that minor is entitled to be tried by the same standards as an adult charged with the same or similar offense. It is incredible to believe that it was ever intended that juvenile proceedings to determine delinquency, such as we have here, should be regarded as anything less than “criminal”. This minor is entitled to be tried under the law of the land and not under “laws or proclamations specifically promulgated to fit particular cases or to attach new consequences to old conduct”. As said in Gault:
“It would be entirely unrealistic to carve out of the Fifth Amendment all statements by juveniles on the ground that these cannot lead to ‘criminal’ involvement. In the first place, juvenile proceedings to determine ‘delinquency,’ which may lead to commitment to a state institution, must be regarded as ‘criminal’ for purposes of the privilege against self-incrimination. To hold* otherwise
*[387 U.S. 50]
would be to disregard substance because of the feeble enticement of the ‘civil’ label-of-convenience which has been attached to juvenile proceedings.”
The procedure herein advocated can be adopted and at the same time be kept within the framework of the Juvenile Act of the State of Texas.
Finally, the Court states that Santana “pleaded a denial to the charges and alibi; i.e., he was at home with his family when the alleged event took place.” This leaves the implication, at least, that since the defense was that of “alibi”, Santana was prepared on February 2, 1967, to meet either charge. This does not necessarily follow. For example, the defense of “alibi” would not be inconsistent with the additional defense of impotence or some physical defect which would prevent the accomplishment of the crime of rape. Santana was not and should not be required to disclose before trial his defenses. Requiring a minor to file defensive pleadings is equivalent to compelling the juvenile, in effect, to testify against himself. The manner of trial of this case relieved the State of its burden to establish the guilt of the respondent beyond a reasonable doubt.
For the reasons stated, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals which reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the cause to the lower court for a new trial.