Court Opinion

ID: 9682865
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:18:48.558458+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:42.740074
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
dissenting.
Esequel Banda, henceforth appellant, was convicted by a jury of capital murder. After the jury answered in the affirmative the submitted special issues, the trial judge assessed punishment at death. Appeal to this Court is automatic. See Art. 37.071, V.A.C.C.P.
We have been informed that present counsel on appeal, who did not represent appellant at his trial, was retained by appellant’s family to represent appellant on his appeal, and have also been informed that Hamilton County paid for the statement of facts in this cause. Thus, for all intent and purposes, appellant is an indigent person. Counsel has filed a brief, *297which consists of no more than six letter size pages, in which he presents one point of error. It took counsel almost nine months in which to prepare and file this brief. However, to be fair to counsel, I must point out that even before the brief was to be filed in this cause, counsel filed a motion to withdraw as counsel for appellant, asserting therein that appellant “had not cooperated with said counsel in his representation in the above-entitled and numbered cause, and counsel does not wish to represent said Defendant.” The trial judge, believing that he did not have jurisdiction to act on the motion, forwarded same to this Court. Subsequently, counsel was informed by one of this Court’s staff attorneys that he “did not have a proper motion to withdraw before this Court.” Counsel apparently did not further pursue his motion to withdraw.
There is nothing in the record of this cause that might reflect or indicate whether, notwithstanding counsel’s efforts to withdraw from the case, appellant has been dissatisfied with counsel’s performance on appeal. The record, however, also does not reflect whether appellant has seen a copy of the brief that present counsel has filed on his behalf in this Court. Nor does the record reflect or indicate how many hours counsel spent carefully reading the record and preparing the brief that he filed. Counsel did not argue the case before this Court.
Because of its importance to my discussion, I will set out the substantive portions of the brief that retained counsel has filed in this cause on behalf of appellant. What I will set out includes the sole point of error and the argument thereunder. I will exclude any reference to the flysheet, the table of contents, the introductory comments, the prayer, and the certificate of service page of the brief. If one counts the flysheet, the table of contents, and the certificate of service page, the brief consists of six letter size pages in length. Without those pages, the brief consists of three letter size pages.
POINT OP ERROR NUMBER ONE THE TRIAL COURT ERRED BY ADMITTING INTO EVIDENCE AN EXTRANEOUS OFFENSE OVER THE OBJECTION THAT IT WAS AN EXTRANEOUS OFFENSE, WAS NOT RELEVANT AND WAS A COLLATERAL ISSUE.
ARGUMENT
During the direct-examination of Brenda Lee Hunter, at the guilt stage of the trial, Volume XIV, Page 53 of the Statement of Facts, the following took place: Question — OK. All right, Well, what happened — and he — there was some comment made about downing the beer? Answer — Yes. Then they just started getting into an argument and everything, then Mark had to go to the restroom, and that’s when Kelly come over and he tried to kiss me.... Defense Counsel objected on the grounds of relevancy. Rules 401, 402, 403 and 404 of the Texas Rules of Evidence rules the admissibility of prejudicial collateral evidence such as this. The prejudicial effect of this testimony far outweighed any value the testimony has in arriving at a verdict. The appellants [sic] amorous actions towards the witness hours before the murder is not relevant and is a collateral matter and therefore was inadmissible.
The remainder of the brief consists of the prayer, which consists of 30 words, counsel’s signature, and the certificate of service page.
I believe that this brief amounts to an “Anders Brief”, without any showing that counsel complied with what the Supreme Court stated in Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), or what this Court stated in Gainous v. State, 436 S.W.2d 137 (Tex.Cr.App.1969).
Because I find that this is one of those “pay me now or pay me later” cases, in that appellant will most assuredly, after some period of time has elapsed, receive either from this Court, a federal district court, or the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals an out-of-time appeal, my vote is to order that the brief that has been filed on appellant's behalf be stricken and that the cause be rebriefed.
*298Although a postconviction writ case, I find that what the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stated and held in Passmore v. Estelle, 594 F.2d 115 (5th Cir.1979), controls the disposition that should be made of this appeal. In Passmore, retained counsel on appeal filed a one sentence, thirteen word brief, which merely recited a prayer for relief, which is where the thirteen words are found. For reasons stated in its opinion, the Fifth Circuit found that retained counsel’s representation of that defendant was ineffective, and granted the defendant an out-of-time appeal.
In Modden v. State, 721 S.W.2d 859 (Tex. Cr.App.1986), one of the defendant’s court appointed counsel on appeal, in a case in which the defendant was assessed a premature death, filed an “Anders Brief,” but later his also court appointed co-counsel filed a brief consisting of five points of error. As to the latter brief, this Court was compelled to point out the following: “The points of error are multifarious, contain incomplete or no citations to the record, and fail to state an adequate legal basis upon which complaint is made.” 721 S.W.2d at 860, fn. 1. As to the “Anders Brief” that was filed in that cause, this Court stated: “We do not express any opinion as to the appropriateness of a ‘frivolous appeal brief’ in a capital case where the punishment was assessed at death.” Given the brief that was filed in this cause, which I find amounts to nothing less than a “frivolous appeal brief,” isn’t it now time for this Court to express an opinion on the issue?
This Court, either under the Rules of Appellate Procedure or pursuant to this Court’s inherent power, should order that the brief filed on behalf of appellant be stricken and that this cause be rebriefed. Because the majority of this Court declines to take that positive step, I respectfully dissent.
MILLER, J., joins this opinion.