Court Opinion

ID: 9761659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:49:04.257675+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:25.237701
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge
(dissenting opinion on the State’s motion for leave to file motion for rehearing).
The majority overrules the State’s motion for leave to file a motion for rehearing. In the original opinion it asserts that Article 40.09, Section 6(d)(3), V.A.C.C.P., is followed. That statute is not applicable; it provides that an objection may be made when evidence is “offered” outside the presence of the jury. No evidence had been offered then weeks prior to the trial. The burden is on a defendant in a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence. The State does not have to offer evidence at that time. Formerly a defendant had to object in front of the jury. Article 40.09, Section 6(d)(3), V.A.C.C.P., changed that to permit an objection to “offered” evidence outside the presence of the jury.
The rule adopted by the majority is neither reasonable nor practical. Busy trial judges are unable to remember every motion and ruling filed months prior to a trial and prosecutors in the trial of a case may not have notice of rulings on motions to suppress. Some prosecution staffs have a division that handles pretrial motions and another division for trial work. Further, different judges might hear motions and another judge will preside at the trial. Will the majority hold that a trial judge is bound by a motion to suppress held two years earlier? This question could arise if there has been an appeal and a reversal upon another ground.
Since the majority opinion was written, some trial judges, in order not to be bound to have total recall of all details, have refused to grant hearings on motions to suppress. More will no doubt adopt the practice and may do so under Bosley v. State, 414 S.W.2d 468 (Tex.Cr.App.1967), and Hicks v. State, 508 S.W.2d 400 (Tex.Cr.App.1974).
The State’s motion for rehearing should be granted and the judgment affirmed, especially in view of the fact that the premises searched were described in the affidavit *306which was made a part of the search warrant.
The judgment should be affirmed.