Court Opinion

ID: 9759519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:19:05.320915+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:02.581680
License: Public Domain

DIAL, Justice,
concurring.
TEX.CODE CRIM.PROC.ANN. art. 38.-23 (Vernon 1979) as it is presently written requires an instruction that permits or requires the jurors to speculate on what constitutes a “violation of any provision of the Constitution or laws of the State of Texas, or of the Constitution or laws of the United States of America.” For jurors to fairly apply this article, they should be instructed as to the elements of the law allegedly violated by the “officer or other person.” This could conceivably amount to a short course on Constitutional Law. That probably explains why the Legislature wrote the statute as it did, but it does not justify the unfairness of its applicability.
I would invite the Legislature to provide that determining whether evidence was legally obtained be left to the trial judge exclusively.