Court Opinion

ID: 9760724
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:10:25.409321+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:16.375611
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
I concur only in the result the majority reaches in this case. I write separately to address Judge Clinton’s interpretation of the post-Grunsfeld 1993 amendments to Article 37.07, Section 3(a), V.A.C.C.P. See Grunsfeld v. State, 843 S.W.2d 521 (Tex.Cr.App.1992).
This case does not involve the application of the 1993 amendments to Article 37.07, Section 3(a). However, Judge Clinton addresses current Article 37.07, Section 3(a), in his concurring opinion. Given this Court’s history of misinterpreting Article 37.07, Section 3(a), see Grunsfeld, and subsequent legislative action deleting “... as permitted by the Rules of Evidence ...,” it seems clear, as Judge Clinton suggests, that the “plain language” of the 1993 amendments to Article 37.07, Section 3(a), grants trial courts almost “unfettered discretion” to “define what the issues are at the punishment phase of a non-capital trial” on a case-by-case basis. This was the State’s position in Grunsfeld under the pre-1993 amendments to Article 37.07, Section 3(a), which this Court rejected. See Grunsfeld, 843 S.W.2d at 523 (State claimed admissible evidence may include “anything the trial court deems relevant”). The Legislature then amended Article 37.07, Section 3(a), to make it consistent with the State’s position in Grunsfeld. Current Article 37.07, Section 3(a) means what it says. Whether this is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority is a separate question than what the “plain language” of current Article 37.07, Section 3(a) means.
With these comments, I concur only in the Court’s judgment.