Court Opinion

ID: 9675868
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:07:58.0735+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:13:57.564498
License: Public Domain

GRAVES, Presiding Judge
(Dissenting).
This cause was reversed by my brethren upon what appears herein as appellant’s Bill of Exception No. 13, and the contents thereof as set forth in the original opinion to which statement we append the following objection as shown by the bill:
“Mr. Coggins: I object. That is a direct reference to the defendant’s failure to testify.
“The Court: Objection overruled.
“Mr. Coggins: Note our exception. Defendant did not testify.”
This is the end of the bill. In the first place, we think this bill is insufficient because it is not shown therefrom that the *601appellant was the only one who could have denied his intoxication at the time inquired about.
In 4 Texas Jur. p. 397, sec. 264, it is said:
“A bill complaining of a statement that certain testimony or facts had not been denied or disproved, or of a reference to the absence of evidence to show certain facts, or of an argument challenging the jury to explain certain matters as being an indirect reference to the failure of the accused to testify, is insufficient when it does not show that no one other than the appellant was in a position to contradict the testimony or to disprove the statement, or to explain the matter.”
See also Musgrove v. State, 159 Texas Cr. Rep. 571, 265 S.W. 2d 820, 825, wherein it was held that the bill was insufficient because it failed to show that the defendant failed to testify, and also because it failed to recite that there were no other persons present who might have testified as to the fact in issue.
We do not think that this matter would justify the reversal of this cause. There were many people who saw the appellant and whom the appellant was bound to have seen at the time he was driving his car in what the jury found to be an intoxicated condition. He was pursued by a deputy sheriff and finally captured by him. There was another person in the officer’s car at the time appellant was being pursued and at the time he was captured, as well as other persons who were on the street of the county seat of that county, as well as others who observed him at the jail after he was apprehended.
Secondly, this cause was reversed on the further proposition, it being Informal Bill of Exception No. 10. While Mr. N. E. Springer was on the stand, he was asked by the appellant’s attorney if he saw the appellant at the jail on the date of his arrest. The testimony shows that the witness did see appellant on that day some one or two hours after his arrest and talked with him. This witness was at the jail for the purpose of making the appellant’s bond, but the officers refused to allow him to do so at that time. The appellant was then in jail and was sitting at an upstairs window. The witness testified that having seen him at this distance, he formed the opinion that the appellant was not drunk; that he saw appellant again after he had been let out of jail, and that appellant asked him while he was in jail to get Doctor Mansel to take a blood test to determine whether *602or not he was intoxicated. The state objected to this question and answer, and the court excluded the same from the jury. This Informal Bill No. 10 is utilized by the majority of the court as a further error herein.
I do not agree thereto. In the first place, the testimony shows that before this man was placed in jail he was taken to a doctor’s office and the arresting officer requested that a blood test be taken of the appellant. This same Doctor Hansel refused to do so because he was not in possession of the necessary facilities for taking such blood test and could not get same. This went in without objection at the instant appellant was being taken to the jail for the purpose of being locked up therein. Under these circumstances, the court reversed this cause in conjunction with the first error set forth in the opinion herein.
I think this would have been a self-serving declaration and was such. If so, if sufficient time had elapsed in order to give appellant time to fabricate his story then such declaration would not be admissible herein. It is either self-serving or disserving. Certainly it was not offered for disserving purposes, and the lapse of time had occurred whereby one could fabricate his defense. Therefore, I think such statement would not be admissible. See Rains v. State, 140 Texas Cr. R. 548, 146 S.W. 2d 176. I think it would be just as reasonable to allow the appellant to testify that while in jail he told the witness that he was not guilty.
For these reasons, I think the state’s motion for rehearing should be granted and that this cause should be affirmed. Therefore, I respectfully enter my dissent to a reversal of this cause.