Court Opinion

ID: 9768523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 06:07:29.995453+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:41.686244
License: Public Domain

MEYERS, Judge,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion in this case, and write separately because our lead opinion does not fully address the arguments advanced by the parties or the contrary viewpoint expressed by Presiding Judge McCormick and Judge Campbell. In his dissenting opinion, Judge McCormick contends that the judicial admonishment required by subdivision four of article 26.13(a) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure need not be given to American citizens, and that a complete failure to give it is nevertheless in substantial compliance with the statute unless the defendant demonstrates on the record that he is a foreigner.
Clearly, American citizens are not subject to deportation as a result of criminal conviction and cannot, therefore, be influenced by the possibility of immigration difficulties when deciding whether to plead guilty to a criminal offense. But the admonishment statute, by its terms, does not provide that the warning be given only to persons who are not citizens of the United States. Rather it requires that all persons who plead guilty be told that noncitizens are subject to deportation. Ex parte Cervantes, 762 S.W.2d 577 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).
Among many other considerations, most of which have not yet been imagined by this Court, one logically necessary effect of writing the statute in this way is to assure that trial judges need never litigate the question of a person’s citizenship in order to determine whether he should be admonished under subdivision four. This is no small affair. If the Legislature had written that such an admonishment was to be given only to citizens of other countries, our own docket might soon be crowded with cases contesting the factual determination that certain persons needed no admonishment because they were not citizens of the United States., Under such conditions, it would soon become apparent that giving the admonishment in all cases is much the better solution. Perhaps the Legislature thought so too, and had enough foresight to avoid the whole difficulty in advance by making the admonishment mandatory in every ease without regard to the defendant’s citizenship. We should be mindful of this when construing the statute, and eschew any interpretation of it which holds for naught the obvious effect of its unambiguous language, which might veiy well have been chosen precisely because it has the advantage suggested here when read according to ordinary rules of English grammar. See Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782 (Tex.Crim.App.1991).
But even if it were the case that the admonishment required by subdivision four does not apply to American citizens, the dissenters in this ease would still be incorrect to require that foreigners prove their status in *756order to demonstrate on appeal noncompliance with the statute. The whole point of admonishments is to alert defendants that certain consequences may follow from their pleas of guilty. If they know enough to make the record reflect them citizenship, where it is not otherwise apparent that citizenship has anything to do with the case, then they probably know already what the admonishment is. Placing the burden on defendants to prove it under these circumstance would only mock the statute by assuming contrary to fact that it serves no real purpose in our jurisprudence.
To be sure, our case law on this subject has been erratic over the years. It seems we could never quite decide whether to give the statute its plain meaning or the one we thought it should have. No doubt we were encouraged in this by the Legislature’s modest reassurance that “substantial compliance by the court is sufficient!.]” Art. 26.13(c). Thinking this meant we should tolerate incomplete or inaccurate admonishments under some circumstances, we promptly invented a couple of exceptions where it seemed to us that the warnings were really unimportant anyway.
Thus, we have held that admonishments on the nonbinding effect of prosecutorial punishment recommendations are not absolutely required in eases where the record reflects that no such recommendations were contemplated by the parties. McCravy v. State, 642 S.W.2d 450, 461-62 (Tex.Crim.App.1982) (opinion on rehearing); Jamail v. State, 574 S.W.2d 137 (Tex.Crim.App.1978); Kidd v. State, 563 S.W.2d 939 (Tex.Crim.App.1978). We have also held that erroneous admonishments on the range of punishment substantially comply with the statute when the punishment actually assessed is within both the range permitted by law and that given by the trial judge in his warning. Eatmon v. State, 768 S.W.2d 310 (Tex.Crim.App.1989); Robinson v. State, 739 S.W.2d 795, 801 (Tex.Crim.App.1987); Taylor v. State, 610 S.W.2d 471 (Tex.Crim.App.1980).
The rationale underlying these peculiar cases reads more like an application of the harmless error rule than a determination that the admonishments actually given were substantially correct. Unfortunately, that is what “substantial compliance” has come to mean in our jurisprudence. We seem to think that the admonishments required by law must be given only when it might make a difference if they aren’t. But that is not what “substantial” means in this or in any other context. Plainly, it is the sense of the statute that defendants need not be admonished in any particular form of words, but only that the information be communicated to them in some effective way. See Richards v. State, 562 S.W.2d 456, 458 (Tex.Crim.App.1978); Gamez v. State, 506 S.W.2d 618 (Tex.Crim.App.1974); Mayse v. State, 494 S.W.2d 914 (Tex.Crim.App.1973). “Substantial compliance” is the opposite of “formal compliance,” not a synonym for “virtual, partial, or near compliance.”
Nevertheless, but for the exceptions mentioned above, our precedents do not encourage a casual attitude toward the admonishment of criminal defendants pleading guilty in our courts of law. Except where the record plainly reflects that a warning required by statute was superfluous, we have not hesitated to reverse convictions based upon pleas of guilty when it was apparent that the trial judge entirely failed to give the few simple cautions which our Legislature has seen fit to require in such cases. Hughes v. State, 833 S.W.2d 137 (Tex.Crim.App.1992); Ex parte McAtee, 599 S.W.2d 335 (Tex.Crim.App.1980); Whitten v. State, 587 S.W.2d 156 (Tex.Crim.App.1979) (opinion on rehearing). I cannot accept that this requirement represents much of a burden on the trial-level judiciary of Texas, nor that remanding a cause for full compliance with the statute is an unjustified imposition upon these courts.
We often concoct legal fictions to avoid the plain effect of laws enacted by our Legislature. The simple fact is that the trial judge in this case, whether through accident or mistake, omitted to perform a duty imposed upon him by law. If he believes that compliance with this duty does not promote the fair administration of justice, then he and others of like mind should prevail upon the Legislature to relieve them of this simple task. But, in the meantime, neither this Court nor the *757intermediate appellate courts of Texas are at liberty to do so.
CLINTON, OVERSTREET and MALONEY, JJ., join.