Court Opinion

ID: 9762471
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:25:03.528232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:34.841478
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
dissenting.
After carefully reconsidering whether Willis v. State, 669 S.W.2d 728 (Tex.Cr.App.1984), upon which the majority opinion in this cause so heavily relies, was correctly decided, I have now concluded that it was wrongly decided, and should be expressly overruled. Other cases, such as Beverly v. State, 792 S.W.2d 103 (Tex.Cr.App.1990), which adhere to the extremely flawed principle of law enunciated in Willis, supra, should also be expressly overruled.
Chapter Fourteen of the Code of Criminal Procedure enumerates the only exceptions when a peace officer is authorized to arrest another individual without a warrant. Art. 14.01(b), V.A.C.C.P., the only *765statute that was implicated in Willis, supra, and the only statute that is implicated in this cause, expressly provides: “A peace officer may arrest an offender without a warrant for any offense committed in the presence or within his view.” As plainly seen, the statute is clearly written. It provides that a peace officer may arrest without a warrant if, in his presence or within his view, he witnesses the commission of any criminal offense. There is nothing within that statute that allows one or more third parties to make an arrest on the basis of information supplied by the officer in whose presence or within whose view the offense was committed. This Court clearly erred in Willis in applying the informant analogy to the statute. See, however, Art. 14.04, V.A.C.C.P. Art. 14.01(b), supra, which by its very wording obviously places the focus of attention on whether the offense was committed within the presence or within the view of the arresting officer, and not on what information a peace officer might have relayed to another peace officer, who makes the actual arrest. The question in this cause is not whether the arresting officer might have had probable cause to make the arrest; instead, the issue is whether the arresting officer was authorized to make the arrest pursuant to the terms of Art. 14.01(b), supra, and it matters not whether the officer, who relayed to the officer who made the actual arrest, had “probable cause,” or either saw or did not see the arrest take place.
I find that when it comes to interpreting Art. 14.01(b), supra, Justice Burgess of the Beaumont Court of Appeals, who wrote that Court’s majority opinion in Beverly v. State, 764 S.W.2d 353, 354-355 (Tex.App.Beaumont 1989), hit the nail on the head when he stated the following in that opinion:
For a warrantless arrest pursuant to article 14.01, [to be valid] however, probable cause for arrest must arise from facts within the arresting officer's own knowledge and observations, not from hearsay information. (My emphasis.)
Also see and compare Art. 14.02, V.A.C. C.P., regarding the power of a magistrate to order a warrantless arrest to be made when a felony or breach of the peace has been committed in his presence or within his view. See also Judge Clinton’s succinctly written dissenting opinion in this Court’s opinion of Beverly, supra: “[T]he majority construction of Art. 14.01(b) is contrary to the plain language and intendment thereof.”
In this instance, other than being told by the officer in whose presence a felony was committed to arrest a particularly described individual, who turned out to be the appellant, there is no evidence that reflects or indicates that the officer who made the actual arrest of appellant was authorized to arrest appellant pursuant to Art. 14.01(b), supra.
I believe that what this Court’s majority does today, as it did in Willis, supra, and Beverly, supra, is to act legislatively, and not judicially, and, in essence, to actually vote to repeal Art. 14.01(b), supra. This Court, however, in this instance, has not been given authority by the voters of this State to act legislatively. If it is the will of the voters of this State, through its Legislature, to repeal Chapter Fourteen of the Code of Criminal Procedure, then so be it, but please let such occur not in this forum but in the forum where the voters of this State have designated where their laws will be enacted — the Legislature.
Therefore, I respectfully dissent.