Court Opinion

ID: 9664786
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:29:51.167933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:10.188377
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Judge,
dissenting.
I concur in the result reached concerning the standing issue raised by the State for the first time (in this appeal) before this Court. My concurrence is based on my original opinion in Wilson v. State, 692 S.W.2d 661 (Tex.Cr.App.1984), however, and not on any interpretation of whether a “decision” of a court of appeals (as used in Texas Rqje of Appellate Procedure 200) means only the bottom line of one of their opinions, only the reasoning used by the court in a particular case, or only a reason brought forth by one side or another in briefs, etc. Such squabbles are more appropriately addressed by the Rules of Appellate Procedure promulgated by this Court itself. Let us not forget that we write these rules, and if there is some ambiguity therein, or if they are subject to different interpretations, the appropriate place to settle our differences is in the rules.
In Wilson, supra, we said on original submission, quoting Steagald v. U.S., 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981):
“The Government, however, may lose its right to raise factual issues of this sort *749[reasonable expectation of privacy] before this Court [1] when it has made contrary assertions in the courts below, [2] when it has acquiesced in contrary findings by those courts, [3] or when it has failed to raise such questions in a timely fashion during litigation.” Id. at 209, 101 S.Ct. at 1646. (emphasis and brackets added).
Wilson, supra at 663. I still adhere to that view.F
I dissent to the jurisdiction holding. In interpreting legislative intent here we should be more guided by Chapter 311 of the Government Code, titled Code Construction Act. The tortured and maze-like meanderings of the majority opinion over the particular meaning of “jurisdiction” are hardly convincing for the proposition that the Legislature intended the word to be used in the sense that the majority wishes. The Legislature most recently enacted these statutes in 1875 and 1907 and amended them in 1967 and 1969. It is just as likely that the term “jurisdiction” was here intended to mean the levels of criminal offenses that a police officer could enforce (felony, misdemeanor, class “C” misdemeanor, offenses outside the Penal Code, etc.). Else the very wording of Art. 14.01, V.A.C.C.P. paragraphs (a) and (b) is redundant:
(a) A peace officer or any other person, may, without a warrant, arrest an offender when the offense is committed in his presence or within his view, if the offense is one classed as a felony or as an offense against the public peace.
(b) A peace officer may arrest an offender without a warrant for any offense committed in his presence or within his view.
Our prior caselaw is correct. For a felony or breach of the peace a police officer or any citizen can arrest anywhere; for other crimes committed in his presence a police officer had better be seeing them happen in “his own bailiwick.” Weeks v. State, 132 Tex.Cr.R. 524, 106 S.W.2d 275, 276 (1937).
Where the legislative intent is so unclear, and when the reasoning has to be this circuitous, we can hardly say we are determining legislative intent. We are in fact ourselves legislating.
I dissent.

. Curiously, Judge McCormick in his concurring and dissenting opinion seems to limit the holding in Steagald to only the first method by which the government may lose its right to raise an issue on appeal. Only if one ignores method # 3, above, is Steagald “clearly inapplicable” as Judge McCormick maintains.