Court Opinion

ID: 9774347
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:17:24.567976+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:06.812276
License: Public Domain

DORSEY, Justice,
concurring.
I wholly concur in the opinion of the Court but write separately to express my concern about the application of the exclusionary rule.
Agents of the State in this case violated two provisions of Chapter 52 of the Family Code. The juvenile did not talk to the designated juvenile officer prior to giving a statement and the juvenile was not taken to the designated juvenile processing office. These two procedures are mandated by Article 52.02 as protections afforded a juvenile. The issue that is more difficult is whether the violation of these provisions results in the juvenile's statement being inadmissible in a court proceeding.
The legislature has adopted two exclusionary rules in its chapter of the Family Code that relate to delinquent children. The first is in Section 51.09(b) that states, in essence, that any statement by a child is admissible in evidence if the detailed warnings set out in that section are given the child. The other provision, relied on by this Court, is in Section 54.03(e) in which it states: “An extra judicial statement which was obtained without fulfilling the requirements of this title or of the constitution of this state or the United States, may not be used in an adjudication hearing.” Because the requirements of this Title were not met, Section 54.03(e) mandates that the resulting statement may not be used in an adjudication hearing.
The legislature may provide additional protections to a juvenile that are not mandated by the state or federal constitution. It is not the function of a court to determine whether the legislature was wise in setting out such detailed procedural safeguards and then requiring that any statement taken in violation of any of them be inadmissible. The function of a court is to apply the law as it is given by the lawmaker, the legislature, even though we may disagree that the harsh remedy of exclusion of evidence should not be required by a technical breach of the procedural rules.