Court Opinion

ID: 9777845
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:25:40.544391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:37.374218
License: Public Domain

CLINTON, Judge,
dissenting.
Semantics aside, it seems to me that a legislative decision to terminate risk of death as punishment for a person found guilty of capital murder raises a grave jeopardy problem, and that it is not rationally resolved in the majority opinion by merely saying the jury did not make “an actual determination of [the second punishment] issue.” At p. 57.1 The State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each special issue submitted to the jury. Article 37.071(c), V.A.C.C.P. The jury is instructed to that effect and that it may not answer any issue “yes” unless all jurors agree unanimously. Article 37.071(d)(1). Having assayed evidence adduced by the State and defendant, when a jury does not find unanimously in favor of the State on any special issue, the effect in law is that the State has not sustained its burden of proof. Whether manifested by agreement of ten jurors to answer a special issue “no” or by a failure to answer is of no moment, for the consequence is the same: a sentence to confinement for life. No longer will an unanswered issue constitute an unacceptable “incomplete verdict” on punishment or a basis for declaring a mistrial and ordering a new trial. Compare Eads v. State, 598 S.W.2d 304, 306-307 (Tex.Cr. App.1980), an opinion which probably motivated interested parties to urge the Legislature to amend Article 37.071(e) in 1981.
The majority recognizes that “a jury’s inability to answer a punishment question in a capital murder case has the same sentencing effect as a negative answer.” At p. 58.2 However, the majority spends too much time trying to find the meaning and import of a “nonanswer” in a punishment verdict accepted by a trial judge and on which the judgment of the trial court is based.3 The crucial question is whether an adjudication of guilt of capital murder with a legislatively mandated sentence of confinement for life operates to preclude the State from seeking the death penalty in a second trial involving a different victim in the same transaction.
Part of the answer may be found in Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U.S. 203,104 S.Ct. 2305, 81 L.Ed.2d 164 (1984) and Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430, 101 S.Ct. 1852, 68 L.Ed.2d 270 (1981), both of which the majority dismisses because “the instant case does not even involve a fact issue that has been sufficiently resolved to invoke that doctrine.” At p. 57, n. 6. Yet, the Legislature has declared “inability” of a jury to answer any special issue submitted to it is the functional equivalent of a nega*60tive answer, resulting m a judgment imposing a sentence of confinement for life. That is similar to the context framed by the Supreme Court in the former, viz:
“In short, a sentence imposed after a completed Arizona capital sentencing hearing is a judgment like the sentence at issue in Bullington v. Missouri, which this Court held triggers the protections of the Double Jeopardy Clause.”
Arizona v. Rumsey, supra, 467 U.S. at 210, 104 S.Ct. at 2310.
With its jeopardy premise established, the Supreme Court identified the relevant double jeopardy principle, towit: “an acquittal on the merits by the sole decision-maker in the proceeding is final and bars retrial on the same charge.” Ibid. Texas has legislatively mandated that an unanswered special issue has the same effect as a “no” answer, constituting an acquittal on the merits of the death penalty issue. Therefore, according to Arizona v. Rum-sey:
“Application of the Bullington principle renders respondent’s death sentence a violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause because respondent's initial sentence of life imprisonment was undoubtedly an acquittal on the merits of the central issue in the proceeding — whether death was the appropriate punishment for respondent’s offense. That judgment, based on findings sufficient to establish legal entitlement to the life sentence, amounts to an acquittal on the merits and, as such, bars any retrial of the appropriateness of the death penalty.”

Ibid.

While Arizona v. Rumsey involved a retrial for the same offense, the Bullington principle should be equally applicable where, as here, there is but one transaction, albeit three victims. See Ex parte Crosby, 703 S.W.2d 683 (Tex.Cr.App.1986) (theft being an integral part of the offense of aggravated robbery, when but one theft occurs, only one conviction may stand); see also Ex parte Rathmell, 664 S.W.2d 386 (Tex.App. — Corpus Christi 1983) (just one involuntary manslaughter conviction permitted in transaction causing death of two victims), reversed, 717 S.W.2d 33 (Tex. Cr.App.1986). For indicia of further legislative intent in serial murder offenses, see Article 37.071(f).4
Because the majority does not address the jeopardy problem with a proper analysis of existing law, I respectfully dissent.
TEAGUE, J., joins this opinion.

. There may constitutional problems as well, but I do not address, much less identify, them; I write for another purpose.

. The Dallas Court of Appeals found factually, "The jury failed to answer special issue No. 2 in either the affirmative or negative.” Ex parte Padgett, 673 S.W.2d 303, 304 (Tex.App. — Dallas 1984). While neither party makes a point of it, a subtle difference in effect between "inability" and "failure” seems to have been detected in Eads v. State, supra. Whether there still is after the 1981 amendment to Article 37.071(e), supra, need not be ventured here since the majority relies only on “inability." (All emphasis is mine throughout unless otherwise indicated.)

. Not at all surprisingly, it finds nothing to indicate that the Legislature “intended that a jury’s nonanswer be converted into negative answer for the purpose of collateral estoppel.” At p. 58. However, a cardinal rule in statutory interpretation is to ascertain legislative intent in enacting a statute, and such intent and determination is to be based on language of statute itself. Faulk v. State, 608 S.W.2d 625, 631 (Tex. Cr.App.1980); Ex parte Hayden, 152 Tex.Cr.R. 517, 215 S.W.2d 620 (1949). Under case law resort to such external aids in interpreting a statute is proper only to resolve an ambiguity. Cail v. Service Motors, Inc., 660 S.W.2d 814 (Tex.1983); Harris v. City of Fort Worth, 142 Tex. 600, 180 S.W.2d 131 (1944). There is nothing ambiguous about the language in § 1, Acts 1981, 67th Leg., Ch. 725, p. 2673. While a notion of its purpose may be expressed in a ‘bill analysis” done by staff to a House committee, still the Legislature is deemed to have intended consequences flowing from its solemn enactments. See Ex parte Santellana, 606 S.W.2d 331, 333 (Tex.Cr.App.1980). One clear result is that, contrary to Eads, supra, even a "nonan-swer” in a verdict will compel a trial court to enter a judgment imposing life imprisonment.

. “If defendant is convicted of an offense under Section 19.03(a)(6), Penal Code, the court shall submit the three issues under Subsection (b) of this article only with regard to the conduct of the defendant in murdering the deceased individual first named in the indictment.”