Court Opinion

ID: 9776955
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:50:05.388432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:10.532470
License: Public Domain

STOVER, Justice,
dissenting.
Having dissented to the majority opinion on original submission of this ease, I now reconsider my position in light of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal’s opinion in Nenno v. State, 970 S.W.2d 549, 561 (Tex.Crim.App.1998). In that opinion, the Court recognized the applicability of Tex.R. Evid. 702 to the “soft sciences” and set out a less stringent test for admission of such evidence. The Court reaffirmed the requirement of reliability which it previously set out in Kelly v. State, 824 S.W.2d 568 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), but stated the requirement would be applied with “less rigor.” Nenno, 970 S.W.2d at 561. In light of Nenno and the less rigorous test set out therein, I now concur with the majority opinion and conclude the expert testimony was both relevant and reliable. I likewise am in agreement with the majority’s conclusion that the testimony is more probative than prejudicial. The majority was correct in concluding the trial court erred in excluding Dr. Deffenbacher’s testimony.
Rule 44.2(b) of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure governs the assessment of harm after error is found in criminal cases. It provides that “any [non-constitutional] error, defect, irregularity, or variance that does not affect substantial rights must be disregarded.” The Court of Criminal Appeals has indicated that “[a] substantial right is affected when the error had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.” King v. State, 953 S.W.2d 266, 271 (Tex.Crim.App.1997) (citing Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 776, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946)). The initial question before us then is whether the error in excluding the expert testimony affected appellant’s substantial rights. In other words, would Dr. Deffenbacher’s testimony have had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict. See Salinas v. State, 963 S.W.2d 889, 891 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi), vacated on other grounds, 980 S.W.2d 219 (Tex.Crim.App.1998).
The majority has done an in-depth analysis of this record, which I respect. However, after viewing the entire record and placing the error in the context of that record, I conclude, unlike the majority, that appellant’s substantial rights were not affected. The unreliability of the eyewitness testimony was emphasized before the jury through appellant’s cross examination of the eyewitnesses themselves and through introduction of other defense evidence.1 Since the reliability issue *240was already before the jury, albeit not by expert testimony, I do not believe appellant’s substantial rights were affected by the trial court’s error. Dr. Deffenbacher’s testimony would have had no effect, or very slight effect, on the verdict. Consequently, the trial court’s error was harmless and, pursuant to Tex.R.App. P. 44.2(b), should be disregarded. Point of error three should be overruled.

. Appellant introduced into evidence photographs taken at the vantage point from which the young girl, N.R., would have viewed appellant at the scene of the crime. Through the photographs, appellant’s counsel sought to illustrate the point that the distance and the angle from *240which N.R. saw the alleged perpetrator made N.R.'s identification of appellant unreliable.