Court Opinion

ID: 9811472
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:21:38.389364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:54.474380
License: Public Domain

BEN Z. GRANT, Justice,
dissenting.
Years ago there was a hue and cry over the courts’ failure to inform jurors about good conduct time and eligibility for parole. This absence of instruction created the danger of jurors speculating about these matters and possibly basing their verdicts on myths, rumors, and uninformed views. Thus, it was a proper endeavor for the Legislature to seek to require that the jurors be informed of the laws pertaining to good conduct and parole.
The instruction the Legislature produced to inform the jurors regarding cases such as this, Tex.Code Crim. PROC. Ann. art. 37.07, § 4(a) (Vernon Supp.2002), as it is written now, can only function to deceive, confuse, and invite erroneous conclusions. Although the defendant’s conduct will be evaluated when the defendant becomes eligible for parole, the defendant is not entitled to good conduct time.
Although the instruction does not label the method of reduction involving good conduct time or “mandatory supervision,” it implies a method distinct from parole, which is sufficient to make the instruction regarding such defendants substantively incorrect and misleading, regardless of how much the jurors know about the justice system. It is a disservice both to the defendant and the jurors involved to pro*787vide them with misleading information. This instruction is fundamentally unfair, denying the defendant due course of law in violation of Article I, § 19 of the Texas Constitution. The burden should not be on each defendant to meet the near-impossible task of proving that the jury was in fact misled by the instruction and that the defendant was actually harmed. The Legislature should amend the instruction to cure this defect.
The instruction actually given in this case is even less accurate than the statutory instruction in that it not only indicates a separate and distinct way good conduct time may decrease a defendant’s period of incarceration, and it specifically states the defendant “may earn time off the sentence imposed through the award of good conduct time.”
I disagree that statements made by Rogers’s counsel in the closing arguments waives Rogers’s complaint. A jury is more likely to, and should, be guided by the court’s charge, not what a lawyer says in arguing his or her side of the case.
Because the charge and the statute are fundamentally unfair as applied to this type of case, I believe it violates the defendant’s rights of constitutional due process. The Legislature should consider revising the instruction under Article 37.07, § 4(a) to eliminate or clarify in what way good conduct time may affect defendants who are not subject to the instruction now contained in the statute.
I would reverse the punishment portion of the case because the charge inaccurately tells the jury that the defendant in this case can earn time off the sentence imposed and thus violates the defendant’s right of constitutional due process.