Court Opinion

ID: 9659704
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:53:07.560586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:10.801624
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
dissenting.
The issue that is before this Court is not whether one of the prosecuting attorneys in this cause committed error by asking an improper question; the issue, instead, is whether the error became harmless by the trial court’s instruction to the jury. Try as I might, I am unable to conclude that there is not a reasonable possibility that the error in asking the improper question did not contribute to the punishment that was assessed. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.
Appellant’s punishment, enhanced by one prior felony conviction, was assessed by the jury at 11 years’ confinement in the Department of Corrections. The range of punishment, as to the possible time in the penitentiary that could have been assessed, was not less than 2 years nor more than 20 years.
The record reflects that a punishment hearing was conducted after the jury found appellant guilty of delivering to another person more than one-fourth of an ounce of marihuana. The State proved up at the punishment hearing two prior felony convictions. However, only one of the convictions was used to enhance appellant’s punishment. During the punishment hearing, Mr. Kilgore, the attorney for appellant, asked the appellant’s wife the following question: “Q: Mrs. Gonzales, during the 12 years you’ve been married, has Rufino been, to your knowledge, ever charged with anything other than the case that we’ve tried today, with just those two possessions of marijuana [sic] with — I’m sorry. Let me rephrase it. Has he ever been convicted of anything other than those two possessions of marijuana [sic].” The witness answered: “That’s all I know about.”
Thereafter, on cross-examination, Mr. Blomerth, one of the prosecuting attorneys, asked the witness the following question, and she responded with the following answer: “Q: Isn’t it a fact that he was charged on the 4th day of March of 1978 *52with delivering to Ronald Green a quantity of marijuana [sic] of over one fourth of an ounce? A: That he was what, convicted?”
Mr. Kilgore then objected and a hearing outside the presence of the jury was conducted on Mr. Kilgore’s motion for mistrial.
The record of the hearing reveals that not all agreed upon the wording of the question. Mr. Kilgore stated: “In my present frame of mind, I had a slight slip of tongue”, “That word, (charged), may have come out of my mouth, but I immediately corrected it ...” However, Mr. Van Horn, the other prosecuting attorney, stated to the court that he thought that the question was simply, “Are you aware of him ever being charged?” The court reporter then ascertained that the question was as we have set it out above, which does show what might perhaps be considered “a slip of the tongue.” Mr. Van Horn then stated, “I thought I specifically heard the — maybe I didn’t hear him rephrase it or maybe there was more. I’m not sure, Your Honor, but I certainly thought there was a question asked relating to charges and not convictions ...” Thereafter, Mr. Blomerth responded: “The defense attorney is attempting in this case — he asked a question that both Mr. Van Horn and I clearly heard as being, has he ever been charged with such an offense, not convicted, and in the middle of his own sentence rephrases it in such a manner that perhaps he did confuse us ... If the record reflects what has been said here, we will withdraw the question. I specifically — and I think Mr. Van Horn [sic] asked this question in good faith and we would withdraw the question at this time.”
The trial judge instructed the jury that they were not to consider the question or the answer, “for any purpose.” Mr. Blo-merth also stated the following in the presence of the jury: “The State withdraws the question, Your Honor, as well and passes the witness ...” The witness was not asked any further questions. Mr. Kil-gore’s motion for mistrial was denied.
It has long been the established rule in this State that, excepting capital murder cases, the defendant is to be tried and punished upon the merits of each case, and that proof of extraneous crimes or specific acts of misconduct by the defendant are generally not admissible evidence, such becoming admissible evidence under the most limited of exceptions and conditions. Viewing the matter from hindsight, there is no question but that Mr. Blomerth erred in asking the appellant’s wife the following question, “Isn’t it a fact that he, (the appellant), was charged on the 4th day of March of 1978 with delivering to Ronald Green a quantity of marijuana of over one fourth of an ounce?”
However, the issue is not whether Mr. Blomerth erred, because even the State concedes that his question was improper; the issue, instead, is whether there is a reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the jury’s decision to assess appellant 11 years’ confinement in the penitentiary. In light of this Court’s decision of Mounts v. State, 148 Tex.Cr.R. 149, 185 S.W.2d 731 (1945), which held that reversible error may occur solely because of an improper question, and the cases which have followed Mounts, supra, it would be quite easy to hold that the improper question was incurable. However, did the fact that the jury was made aware that appellant had been previously convicted of two prior felony offenses, and had served time in the penitentiary, and the trial court instructed the jury to disregard the question and answer, cure or cause the error to become harmless? Or, was the question so prejudicial and obviously hurtful as to preclude appellant a fair and impartial punishment hearing, which the law guaranteed him? The jury was permitted to assess punishment within the range of 2 to 20 years. They chose to assess punishment at 11 years’ confinement in the penitentiary. Is there a reasonable possibility that the improper question might have contributed to the jury’s decision to assess punishment at 11 years’ confinement in the penitentiary? Not without some difficulty, I am constrained to find that the error was incurable.
*53In Mounts, supra, the defendant was tried for murder. During cross-examination, the prosecuting attorney asked the defendant the following question, “On December 24, 1983, at Live Oak Cliff Boulevard at 9:15, I will ask you if you didn’t have an altercation and pistol-whip a victim?” Even though the trial judge intervened before an objection was made, stating, “Here. Here. Stop that. That’s improper,” this Court, nevertheless, held that the question, alone, constituted incurable error. “The question, as so framed, of and within itself, implied appellant’s guilt of the misconduct inquired about and amounted, therefore, to proof of a fact, by necessary implication damaging and hurtful to appellant, that the State was not authorized to prove.” (734). This Court also held, regarding the statements of the trial judge, “he did what he could but the harm to the appellant had been done.” (735).
In this instance, at a trial which occurred in 1981, appellant’s wife was asked, “Isn’t it a fact that he was charged on the 4th day of March of 1978 with delivering to Ronald Green a quantity of marijuana of over one fourth of an ounce?” I believe that the average juror would have believed that this implied appellant’s guilt of the misconduct inquired about and amounted, therefore, to proof of a fact, by necessary implication damaging- and hurtful to appellant. Under the facts and circumstances of this case, I am unable to state that, as to the punishment that was assessed, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can unring the bell, can forget the wound that was inflicted, or can forget the smell.” See Dunn v. United States, 307 F.2d 883, 886 (5th Cir.1962).
We, as judges on the highest appellate criminal court of this State, whose decisions are subject to review only by the Supreme Court of the United States, are, of course, concerned with guilt, innocence, and punishment in criminal cases; but of equal importance is the fact that we are commissioned by the citizens of Texas to make sure that persons who are accused of committing criminal wrongs against the State have received their constitutionally guaranteed right to a fair trial, which, of course, includes guilt as well as punishment.
Although I would be one of the first to agree that trials are rarely, if ever, perfect, I must state in this instance that I am unable to say that the error was curable and that there is not a reasonable possibility that such error might have affected the jury’s decision to assess appellant’s punishment at 11 years’ confinement in the penitentiary. Therefore, I am constrained to dissent.
MILLER, J., joins.