Court Opinion

ID: 9669074
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:38:41.272425+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:51.961159
License: Public Domain

BUTTS, Justice,
dissentmg.
The reason for this dissent is threefold: (1) TMs concerns only a small portion of the otherwise recorded voir dire examination— when some prospective jurors were called to the bench for questioning by the trial court; (2) appellant did not object to the procedure; and, (3) appellant has assigned no error wMch occurred during this time at the bench or resulted from it. The voir dire examination of the jury panel is in the record except for the bench discussions.
It is not unusual for a trial court during voir dire examination to call prospective jurors to the bench in order to avoid undue embarrassment of that person or prejudice to the defendant. Counsel for defense and the State will also be present at the bench conference. There is no abuse of discretion in tMs procedure by the trial court, which has great discretion in conducting voir dire examination.
The record reflects that some persons were excused for cause when either appellant or the State challenged them for cause. Of course, appellant knows who these were, but he has failed to name any particular venire-person who might have been incorrectly excused. In addition, he failed to object to any bench discussion ruling and does not bring forward that kind of assignment of error on appeal; he does not now argue that he was forced to use a peremptory strike because the trial court erroneously excused a prospective juror for cause. In short, all he argues on appeal is that the “bench notes” of the court reporter were lost or unavailable for transcription, and the case must be reversed.
Even the failure to grant a defendant’s request to record the voir dire exammation is not reversible error per se. It is reversible error only where some action occurring during the voir dire examination is assigned as error. Vines v. State, 479 S.W.2d 322, 323-24 (Tex.Crim.App.1972).
Voir dire examination is not an evidentiary hearing which supports the guilt or innocence determination. It is not required to be a portion of the statement of facts unless the defendant specifically requests that it be recorded. In Roy v. State, 552 S.W.2d 827, 832 (Tex.Crim.App.1977), overruled on other grounds, Johnson v. State, 650 S.W.2d 414 (Tex.Crim.App.1983), the defendant did not request that a transcription of the voir dire examination be made. The defendant argued on appeal that the trial court failed to dismiss certain prospective jurors due to their answers to questions on voir dire. The court held that nothing was presented for review since no affirmative request for the *176transcription had been made. In the present case there is nothing to show that appellant made an affirmative request for the court reporter to record the bench discussions. More important, there is no assignment of any error occurring during that time. It is appellant’s contention merely that the impossibility of transcribing the missing “notes” of the bench discussions is a per se violation which mandates reversal of the judgment. That is not the Texas law.
An otherwise valid conviction should not be reversed in the absence of any specific assertion of prejudice. The court, in Miller v. State, 472 S.W.2d 269, 273 (Tex.Crim.App. 1971), held there was no reversible error since there was no showing that any objection was made during the voir dire of the jury or that anything occurred during that time which was prejudicial to the defendant. The same is true in the present case; there is no suggestion that anything occurred on voir dire to the detriment of appellant.
Reliance by appellant on two capital murder cases, Emery v. State, 800 S.W.2d 530 (Tex.Crim.App.1990) and Dunn v. State, 733 S.W.2d 212 (Tex.Crim.App.1987) is misplaced. One involved pretrial evidentiary hearings (Emery) with assigned error going to the merits of guilt or innocence which could affect the outcome of the case, and the other relied on 37 missing portions of eviden-tiary hearings and individual voir dire examinations of two excused prospective jurors involving death penalty questions (Dunn) and specifically assigned error.
Neither at trial nor on appeal has appellant urged any error — at trial by objection as to action by the trial court regarding a particular prospective juror — or on appeal that a certain prospective juror was excused improperly and he was forced to use a peremptory challenge or other error related to jury selection. For instance, in Alvarado v. State, 508 S.W.2d 74 (Tex.Crim.App.1974) the defendant raised the issue of the statutory unacceptability of a juror as the basis for his allegation of harm during voir dire. Nevertheless, the appellant in this case has failed to allege any error which occurred during the voir dire proceedings.
Consequently, I respectfully dissent to the majority disposition which effectively establishes new law: a mere complaint on appeal that a portion (“bench notes”) of an otherwise recorded voir dire is missing without any allegation or showing of error which occurred at that time to a defendant is reversible error per se.