Court Opinion

ID: 9679992
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:15:18.708478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:24.195755
License: Public Domain

MEYERS, Judge,
dissenting.
In Fisher v. State, 887 S.W.2d 49 (Tex.Crim.App.1994) (McCormick, P.J., joined by "White J., dissenting, Clinton, J., concurring, and Campbell, Meyers, JJ. not participating), this Court imprudently conceived a formula for deciding the sufficiency of the evidence as measured against both the submitted charge and an imperfect indictment. As unfortunate as this “experiment in sufficiency” was, it should be equally apparent that its sphere of influence should be confined to an appellate court’s measurement of sufficiency only, as that question may be presented in an appropriate point of error.
Not surprisingly though, the same majority that fathered the Fisher apparatus has now concluded that Fisher has implications beyond its designated remedy. Some of these implications I fear may have come to roost in this case, and consequently would tend to restrict Studer v. State, 799 S.W.2d 263 (Tex.Crim.App.1990). My ultimate fear would be for these implications somehow to nest and imprudently cloud our jurisprudence.
Nevertheless, I agree that the Court of Appeals erred in the instant cause. Because the trial judge could not lawfully submit the question of aggregation over appellant’s objection, and because appellant’s demand for an election was sufficient to apprise the trial judge that he did not wish to be exposed to conviction for an “aggregated theft,” it is no answer to appellant’s complaint that conviction for “aggregated theft” obviated the need for an election, as the Court of Appeals held. Moreover, without the aid of section 31.09, separate instances of appropriation could not be considered part of a single offense for purposes of prosecution under section 31.03(a). Consequently, the State should have been forced to elect the instance of appropriation upon which it wished to proceed before the jury. Because the trial judge did not honor appellant’s demand for such an election, I would reverse the conviction in this cause and remand for further proceedings in the trial court.
Instead, the majority elects to return this cause to the Court of Appeals for further consideration in light of Fisher. But even assuming that Fisher would somehow affect the disposition of this case, such a remand is altogether unnecessary. Given the majority’s resolution of appellant’s ground for review, a disposition with which I concur for different reasons, there is no further factual or legal analysis to be performed by the lower appellate court.
Accordingly, I dissent.