Court Opinion

ID: 9680962
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:41:42.440459+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:31.607231
License: Public Domain

TAFT, Justice,
concurring.
I write only to urge the Court of Criminal Appeals to reexamine its holding that a total failure to admonish a defendant regarding the range of punishment constitutes fundamental error, without regard to whether that defendant was harmed. See Ex parte McAtee, 599 S.W.2d 335, 335-36 (Tex.Crim.App.1980). The reason given for this per se rule is the enormity of the danger that the plea of guilty was unknowing and involuntary. Id. at 336. However, what if other matters in the record make it clear there is no such danger? For example, what if the record showed the defendant was an expert in criminal law, had written a book on the punishment range for the offense to which he pled guilty, and had taught a criminal law seminar on the same subject the day before entering his plea?
The Court of Criminal Appeals recently disavowed previous cases which had held that harmless error analysis need not be done for certain types of error. See Matchett v. State, 941 S.W.2d 922, 926-29 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). The Court wrote:
That the nature of some legislative mandates and fundamental rights will resist creation of a record from which to meaningfully assess the effects of their violation, does not justify precluding attempts by the State to establish that under the facts of a particular case, the error was in fact harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Id. at 928 (emphasis in original). This rationale applies as well to the failure to give admonishments mandated by statute.
*57In the present ease, appellant’s competency evaluation reflects that appellant “stated he ha[d] been told that he e[ould] receive anywhere from five years to life in prison.” The actual range of punishment for a first degree felony, enhanced by a prior conviction, was confinement for 15 years to 99 years or life, and a fine not to exceed $10,000. There is at least some basis from which the State might have argued that the error in not admonishing appellant regarding the range of punishment was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Because I would not preclude the State from undertaking a harmless error argument, I write in order to urge the Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider McAtee and other cases holding that error in failing to admonish regarding the range of punishment is harmful per se.