Court Opinion

ID: 9647253
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:28:43.164616+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:47.212359
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur only in the result reached. I dissent to the dictum.
If defense counsel goes outside the record and invites a reply, the prosecutor should be able to answer outside the record. If the prosecutor has to argue only what has been introduced in evidence, then the majority is abolishing the doctrine of invited argument. It has always been the rule that a prosecutor may make reasonable deductions from and argue the evidence. Apparently, from the tenor of the majority opinion, the new rule about invited argument is that the prosecutor is only invited to discuss what he has always had a right to argue — the evidence in the case.
Now a prosecutor cannot answer specific false statements or impressions which are outside the record. This ruling in connection with the recent holding of the majority of the Court that statements of defense counsel are taken as true unless refuted leave the prosecution in a dilemma. See the dissenting opinion in Hicks v. State, 525 S.W.2d 177 (Tex.Cr.App.1975).