Court Opinion

ID: 9763778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:55:36.357095+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:49.684575
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Presiding Judge
dissenting.
In Hill v. State, we said the Legislature enacted Article 35.261, V.A.C.C.P., “to create uniform procedures and remedies to address claimed constitutional violations during jury selection.” Id., 827 S.W.2d 860, 864 (Tex.Cr.App.1992). (Emphasis Supplied). We also said the Legislature elected to have the sole remedy [for a Batson1 violation] .to be the call of a new array as set out in Article 35.261(b), V.A.C.C.P., and this is the remedy the State requests we mandamus the trial court to provide in this case. Hill, 827 S.W.2d at 863-64. (Emphasis Supplied). The majority opinion, in effect, overrules Hill without expressly finding any constitutional infirmity in Article 35.261(b) but also stating the remedy in Article 35.261(b) “may be unconstitutionally restrictive.”
To the extent Judge Overstreet’s majority opinion suggests Batson and Article 35.261 confer similar but separate rights, I disagree. Batson confers a federal constitutional right to a defendant vicariously to assert the rights of veniremembers peremptorily excluded by the State on the basis of race. The Batson court left it up to the individual States to fashion a remedy for a Batson violation. The Texas Legislature in Article 35.261(b) fashioned the sole remedy to a defendant for a Batson violation. See Hill, 827 S.W.2d at 863-64. The Legislature conferred no separate right under State law; it merely codified a remedy for the violation of a federal constitutional right conferred by Batson.
The majority also suggest the remedy in Article 35.261(b) may be unconstitutional because it does not redress the rights of those veniremembers the State peremptorily strikes on the basis of race. However, Bat-son only provides a defendant with standing to vicariously assert the rights of wrongfully excluded veniremembers. Batson left it up to the States to fashion remedies for Batson violations, and even suggested one appropriate remedy is the one found in Article 35.261(b). This remedy primarily is intended to benefit a defendant and to ensure a fair trial. See Hill, 827 S.W.2d at 864. I do not read Batson as requiring any particular remedy be provided to a wrongfully excluded veniremember, and I do not see any constitutional infirmity with the remedy chosen by the legislature in Article. 35.261(b).
I would grant the mandamus relief.
MALONEY, Judge,
dissenting.
I agree that article 35.261 Y.A.C.C.P., given the Supreme Court’s decisions1 expanding the original rule of Batson,2 is partially obsolete as to facts that might arise in the selection of a jury, particularly where the defendant violates the Batson rule. However, under the facts of this case, the statute is workable and should be followed.
The State cites to us the case of State v. McCollum, 334 N.C. 208, 433 S.E.2d. 144 (1993). In that ease a capital murder defendant argued on appeal that the trial court reversibly erred in refusing to seat a venireman who had been impermissibly struck in violation of Batson. Instead, the trial court dismissed the jury and called an entirely new venire panel. The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s actions, calling it “the better practice” and stating that neither Batson nor Powers requires that a *427venireman be placed back on the panel having been struck. The North Carolina Court reasoned “that the primary focus of a criminal case ... must continue to be upon the goal of achieving a trial which is fair to both the defendant and the State.” McCollum, 433 S.E.2d at 159.
In Hill v. State, 827 S.W.2d 860 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), this Court articulated the purpose of article 35.261, and the Supreme Court of North Carolina’s reasoning is consistent with that purpose:
To ask jurors who have been improperly excluded from a jury because of their race to then return to the jury to remain unaffected by that recent discrimination, and to render an impartial verdict without prejudice towards either the State or the defendant, would be to ask them to discharge a duty which would require near superhuman effort and which would be extremely difficult for a person possessed of any sensitivity whatsoever to carry out successfully-
McCollum, 433 S.E.2d at 159; see also Hill, 827 S.W.2d at 864 (remedy of calling new array is to eliminate possibility of bias if struck venireman were to be reseated).
As pointed out in Hill, the reseating of a venireman discriminatorily struck was rejected by the legislature when it enacted 35.261; however, as stated above the statute is now partially obsolete (albeit workable under the facts of this case). Even if we were to hold that the statute is completely obsolete in light of recent Supreme Court decisions, it seems to me that an attempt should be made to fashion a remedy that is consistent with such Supreme Court cases and with the legislative intent as expressed in the existing statute.
My brethren believe that a vacuum now exists as to remedy and have attempted to fashion a solution. Hoping that the trial judges of this State in applying that solution continue to remember the primary focus of a criminal case, I regretfully dissent.
McCORMICK, P.J., joins.

. 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986).

. Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 113 L.Ed.2d 411 (1991); Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S. 614, 111 S.Ct. 2077, 114 L.Ed.2d 660 (1991); Georgia v. McCollum, — U.S.—, 112 S.Ct. 2348, 120 L.Ed.2d 33 (1993).

. Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Batson held that it is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment for the State to exercise a peremptory challenge against veniremembers solely on account of their race. Id. at 89, 106 S.Ct. at 1719. While a defendant has no right to a jury composed of members in whole or in part of persons of his own race, a "defendant does have the right to a jury whose members are selected pursuant to nondiscriminatory criteria.” Id. at 85-86, 106 S.Ct. at 86.