Court Opinion

ID: 9653897
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:58:20.510151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:26.917341
License: Public Domain

ONION, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
In Jones v. State, 532 S.W.2d 596 (Tex.Cr. App.1976), this court held:
*546“In the instant ease, while the conviction cannot be sustained as a burglary of a habitation under the facts proved, the proof is sufficient to sustain a conviction for burglary of a building. Since the penalty was assessed by the trial judge, and since the punishment was ten (10) years, which falls both within the range of punishment for both a first degree felony and a second degree felony, the conviction can be affirmed as a conviction for burglary of a building with the judgment and sentence reformed accordingly.” (Citations omitted.) (Emphasis added.)
In our opinion on original submission in the instant case, we extended Jones to a similar fact situation where the jury, however, had assessed the punishment.
Now on rehearing the majority decides it is improper to speculate on what punishment would have been assessed by either the jury or the judge and to reform and affirm the conviction as a conviction of a lesser included offense with punishment remaining the same. The majority concludes that the instant case cannot be disinguished on the fact that the judge assessed punishment in Jones and the jury did so in the instant case. I do not agree. Nevertheless, there are important considerations this court should undertake if Jones is to be overruled.
It is observed that the majority simply reverses and remands the case based on the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the jury’s verdict that appellant was guilty of burglary of a habitation as charged in the indictment.
In Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 57 L.Ed.2d 1, the United States Supreme Court by opinion on June 14, 1978, held that the “Double Jeopardy Clause precludes a second trial once the reviewing court has found the evidence legally insufficient to sustain the verdict.” In Greene v. Massey, 437 U.S. 19, 98 S.Ct. 2151, 57 L.Ed.2d 15 (1978), the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide whether a state may retry a defendant after conviction has been reversed by an appellate court on the ground that the evidence introduced at the prior trial was insufficient, as a matter of law, to sustain the jury’s verdict. In Greene v. Massey, supra, the Court wrote:
“Since the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy is fully applicable to state criminal proceedings, Benton v. Maryland, supra [395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969)], we are bound to apply the standard announced in Burks to the case now under review.”
Thus, it can be seen that upon remand the appellant cannot be retried for the offense of burglary of a habitation. The question still remaining is whether there being sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction for burglary of a building, may the appellant be retried for this lesser included offense? In its decision in Greene v. Massey, supra, the Court left this question open and did not decide it (see footnote # 7). Before this case is remanded, that decision should be made with reasoning, but the majority declines to reason.
For the reasons stated, I dissent.
PHILLIPS and W. C. DAVIS, JJ., join in this dissent.