Court Opinion

ID: 9770015
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:11:01.232208+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:09.937473
License: Public Domain

MEYERS, J.,
delivered a dissenting opinion, in which PRICE, HOLLAND, and JOHNSON, J. J., joined.
I concur in the portion of the majority opinion which concludes the court of appeals erred in reversing Appellant’s conviction due to ineffective assistance of counsel, as well as the portion of the majority opinion which explains the analysis required under the second prong of the Strickland test. I dissent *235because the majority chooses to perform that analysis instead of remanding this case to the court of appeals so the appellate court can apply the proper test.
When this Court acts in its capacity as a discretionary review court, we may only review “decisions of the courts of appeals.” Tex.Code Crim. Pro. art. 44.45;1 Tex.R.App. Pro. 200(a).2 See also Texas Constitution Article V sec. 5. We have repeatedly held that we do not reach the merits of any party’s contention when it has not been addressed by the lower appellate court. Lee v. State, 791 S.W.2d 141, 142 (Tex.Crim.App.1990).3 We continue to reaffirm this principle. See, e.g., Musgrove v. State, 960 S.W.2d 74, 76 (Tex.Crim.App.1998) (“The Court of Appeals has not had the opportunity to address that issue, so there is no Court of Appeals’ decision on the issue for this Court to review”).4
For example, in Cain v. State, 958 S.W.2d 404 (Tex.Crim.App.1997), we granted review to determine whether the court of appeals performed a proper harmless error analysis. We said “[i]f we determine that the court of appeals applied an improper legal standard or failed to consider the relevant law, our only possible action is to remand the case to the court of appeals to review the factual sufficiency under the correct standard.” Cain, 958 S.W.2d at 408. This is so in part because “[i]t is not ordinarily this Court’s bailiwick to pass upon questions of harm in the first instance.” Hoang v. State, 939 S.W.2d 593, 598 (Tex.Crim.App.1996), citing Owens v. State, 827 S.W.2d 911, 917 (Tex.Crim.App.1992) and Saenz v. State, 843 S.W.2d 24, 29 (Tex.Crim.App.1992). This Court should take the same approach in the present ease.
The State’s petition for discretionary review asks whether the court of appeals erred in reversing Appellant conviction on ineffectiveness of counsel without properly considering the second prong of the Strickland test. The majority correctly holds “[t]he court of appeals’ analysis under the prejudice prong of Strickland is, at best, incomplete.” Maj. Op. at 233. We have answered the question presented in the State’s petition for discretionary review, and we have laid out the proper legal standard in sufficient detail to illustrate where the court of appeals erred. Our job is done. The appropriate course of action is to remand this case so that the court of appeals can complete its analysis.
With these comments, I concur in the conclusion that the court of appeals erred and the majority opinion’s explanation of the legal standard embodied in the second prong of Strickland. I dissent because this Court should remand this case to the court of appeals.

. Subsection a reads: "The Court of Criminal Appeals may review decisions of the court of appeals on its own motion." Subsection b reads: "The Court of Criminal Appeals may review decisions of the court of appeals upon a petition for discretionary review.”

. “The Court of Criminal Appeals, on its own motion, with or without a petition for discretionary review being filed by the appellant or the State, may review a decision of a court of appeals in a criminal case.”

. See also Fox v. State, 930 S.W.2d 607 (Tex.Crim.App.1996) ("community caretaking” question not presented to lower court); Cooper v. State, 933 S.W.2d 495, 496 (Tex.Crim.App.1996) (theoiy of admissibility not addressed by court of appeals); Connor v. State, 877 S.W.2d 325, 327 (Tex.Crim.App.1994) (question regarding assistance of counsel on motion for new trial not addressed by lower court).

.See also State v. Johnson, 939 S.W.2d 586 (Tex.Crim.App.1996); Sotelo v. State, 913 S.W.2d 507, 509 (Tex.Crim.App.1995) ("we do not reach the merits of any party’s contention when it has not been addressed by the lower appellate court”).