Court Opinion

ID: 9769507
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:53:01.378765+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:27.359310
License: Public Domain

DODSON, Justice,
concurring.
I concur with the majority’s general analysis and with the result. However, I am writing primarily to express my views on the analysis necessitated by the new harmless error standard under Rule 44.2(b) of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. In this regard, I note that the various Texas Courts of Appeals have decided slightly over two dozen reported cases citing the new rule and the Court of Criminal Appeals has decided one. However, the majority of these decisions do not report any substantial discussion of the new standard.1
It is well settled that the admission or exclusion of evidence is a matter within the discretion of the trial court. Johnson v. State, 698 S.W.2d 164, 160 (Tex.Crim.App.1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 871, 107 S.Ct. 239, 93 L.Ed.2d 164 (1986). Moreover, the eiToneous admission of evidence is reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard. Montgomery v. State, 810 S.W.2d 372, 378 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). However, once an appellate court determines that the trial court abused it’s discretion in admitting evidence, the appellate court must then determine whether the erroneous admission was harmful. Tex.R.App. P. 44.2.
Rule 44.2 delineates the standards of harm analysis. The recent changes to the harmless error rule essentially make the analysis in Texas comparable to the federal standard. Rule 44.2(a) represents the old Texas standard which was itself based on the federal harm analysis of constitutional error enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705, (1967) (to disregard constitutional error, reviewing court must be able to declare a belief that error was harmless “beyond a reasonable doubt”).
Rule 44.2(b) is the new rule on harm analysis for non-constitutional error. As the com-*373merits under Rule 44.2 note, 44.2(b) is taken from Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Under either rule, an appellate court must disregard any error, defect, irregularity, or variance that does not affect substantial rights. While this standard is certainly less onerous than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” rule that now applies only to constitutional error, it is unclear how a reviewing court applies the non-constitutional error rule.
Texas authority on the new standard is still somewhat sparse. The Court of Criminal Appeals recently stated that “[a] substantial right is affected when the error had a substantial and injurious affect or influence in determining the juror’s verdict.” King v. State, 953 S.W.2d 266 (Tex.Crim.App.1997) (applying Rule 44.2(b) for the first time). In King, the Court noted that the potential harm of the complained of evidence was “defused” by properly admitted evidence. Id. at 273. In reaching its conclusion, the Court noted that the complained of evidence (pen packets containing information regarding the defendant’s previous incarcerations) was before the jury through other properly admitted evidence and that the State did not emphasize the complained of evidence to the jury. Citing Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946), the Court concluded that the complained of evidence, if improperly admitted, did not have “substantial or injurious” affect on the jury’s verdict. King, at 273. Considering the comment to Rule 44.2(b) referencing the federal rule as well as the Court of Criminal Appeals reliance on Kotteakos, it is clear that the federal authority regarding harm analysis of non-constitutional error is at least persuasive.
Kotteakos is the seminal case on non-constitutional error harm analysis. Under the Kotteakos standard, an appellate court must disregard error that does not affect a substantial right of the defendant. In Kottea-kos, the U.S. Supreme Court explained the standard of review:
If, when all is said and done, the [reviewing court] is sure that the error did not influence the jury or had but very slight effect, the verdict and judgment should stand.... But if one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected- [The question is] whether the error itself had substantial influence.
Kotteakos at 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239. Thus, the reviewing court must consider the impact of the error in light of the entire record. Moreover, if there is “grave doubt” about whether the error affected the outcome, the reviewing court must treat the error as if it did, and reverse. U.S. v. Lane, 474 U.S. 438, 449, 106 S.Ct. 725, 88 L.Ed.2d 814 (1986). Otherwise, the error should be disregarded when the reviewing court determines that such error did not adversely affect the jury’s verdict, or had only slight effect on the verdict.
In the case before us, the error is clearly an evidentiary matter and not a constitutional one. See Garza v. State, 963 S.W.2d 926, 930 (Tex.App. — San Antonio 1998, no pet.) (applying Rule 44.2(b) to erroneous admission of extraneous offenses). Thus, the Kot-teakos analysis applies in determining whether harm resulted from the error. That analysis is two-part. First, we must ascertain whether a substantial right of the defendant was implicated by the error. If no substantial right was affected, then necessarily the defendant could not suffer any substantial or significant harm. Second, it follows that if a substantial right is affected by the error, the right must be adversely affected. See Garza, 963 S.W.2d at 929 (citing Ex parte Fierro, 934 S.W.2d 370, 377 n. 14 (Tex.Crim.App.1996)) finding that reversible error must be prejudicial under the Kot-teakos rule).
It is also important to note that the appellate court does not “determine harmfulness of an error simply by examining whether there exists overwhelming evidence to support the defendant’s guilt.” Garza, at 930 (citing Harris v. State, 790 S.W.2d 568, 587 (Tex.Crim.App.1989)). The reviewing court should instead calculate as much as possible the probable impact the error had on the jury in light of the existence of other evi-*374denee. Id. The question is not whether the outcome was proper or there was overwhelming evidence of guilt, but rather whether the overwhelming evidence “dissipates the error’s effect upon the jury’s function in determining the facts so that it did not contribute to the verdict.” Id. If the properly admitted evidence dissipates the error’s effect so that it does not, or only slightly, affects the verdict, the appellate court should disregard the error.
Applying this body of law to the case before us, we should conclude, as the majority does, that the error here was harmless. First, the substantial right affected by the admission of extraneous offenses is the right to a fair trial. See Garza at 931; U.S. Const. amends. V & VII; Tex. Const. art. I § 10. A defendant must be tried only for the offense with which he is charged. He may not be tried for a collateral crime or for being a criminal generally. Tex.R. Evid. 404(b); Stafford v. State, 813 S.W.2d 503, 506 (Tex. Crim.App.1991). As the majority notes, in the case before us, the prosecution’s questions of the witness exceeded the scope of the opening created by questions and answers on direct. See Hammett v. State, 713 S.W.2d 102, 105-106 (Tex.Crim.App.1986). The State was limited to bringing up extraneous offenses that countered the witness’s statements; ie., that it was not in appellant’s character to commit sexual assault. Under Rule 404(b) of the Rules of Evidence, it is clear that evidence of unrelated arrests or convictions for DWI, criminal mischief, and assault do nothing to show a motive, opportunity, or plan to commit a sexual assault. Nor does any other permissible purpose exist for such evidence in this situation. However, in the context of the sexual assault charge, evidence of these extraneous offenses does implicate the appellant’s substantial right to be tiied only for the crime charged and not as a criminal generally.
Nevertheless, I would also conclude as the majority does that the admission of such evidence was harmless since it did not adversely affect the appellant’s substantial right; in other words, the error did not adversely affect the jury’s verdict, or had only slight effect on the verdict. As the majority notes, the extraneous offenses were not mentioned again during the liability portion of the trial. Additionally, the State presented an abundance of evidence in it’s casein-chief. While the existence of overwhelming evidence is not itself enough for us to conclude there was no harm, the relative impact of the erroneously admitted evidence on the jury is certainly relevant to our determination. See Kotteakos, 328 U.S. at 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239; Garza, 963 S.W.2d at 930-31. Given the strength of the State’s case, and the relatively slight significance of this single witness’s testimony regarding appellant’s character to commit sexual assault, I cannot conclude that the extraneous offense evidence adversely affected the jury’s verdict.
Consequently, I would affirm the conviction.

. See King v. State, 953 S.W.2d 266 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). The cases with the most thorough discussion of the harmless error analysis are Fowler v. State, 958 S.W.2d 853 (Tex.App.—Waco 1997, pet. granted); Weatherred v. State, 963 S.W.2d 115 (Tex.App.—Beaumont Jan.21, 1998, no pet. h.); Garza v. State, 963 S.W.2d 926, (Tex.App.—San Antonio Feb. 25, 1998, no pet. h).