Court Opinion

ID: 9772059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:06:30.755432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:41.938949
License: Public Domain

CLINTON, Judge,
dissenting.
The constitutional right of assembly, Article I, Section 27, Bill of Rights, is not limited to seeking governmental redress of grievances, and may not be unduly curtailed by state statute. De Jonge v. Oregon, 299 U.S. 353, 364-365, 57 S.Ct. 255, 260, 81 L.Ed. 278 (1937). V.T.C.A.Penal Code, § 42.02 creates the same “chilling effect” on assemblage that an overbroad statute does to exercise of right to free speech, Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 487, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 1121, 14 L.Ed.2d 22 (1965). While assembling may be quite validly regulated where its participants harbor a forbidden intent, Lichten v. State, 434 S.W.2d 128, 130-131 (Tex.Cr.App.1968), appeal dismissed 393 U.S. 86, 89 S.Ct. 259, 21 L.Ed.2d 218 (1968), or congregate in excessive numbers, Geissler v. Coussoulis, 424 S.W.2d 709, 712-713 (Tex.Civ.App.-San Antonio, writ ref’d n. r. e.), the spectre of harsh punishment of a citizen for the wrongful conduct of another in his company is a deterrent to gathering together that this Court, in my view, does not alleviate. I agree with Sear-cy and Patterson, Practice Commentary, 4 V.T.C.A., Penal Code 143:
“Subsection (f), a shocking extension of vicarious criminal responsibility, is the worst defect of this section. It goes far beyond anything in the prior law and comes close to imposing strict liability on rioters. Subsection (f) is formulated as a theory of complicity-note the presence of Subsection (d), which was copied from Section 7.03-but even the doctrine of vicarious responsibility of coconspirators, codified in Section 7.02(b), requires that the unintended offense be both in furtherance of the conspiracy and a natural and probable consequence of its consummation. Subsection (f) represents a substantial setback in the effort to require personal culpability as a condition to the imposition of criminal responsibility.” [Emphasis in original]
Accordingly, I dissent.
ONION, P. J., and ROBERTS, J., join.