Court Opinion

ID: 9774679
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:29:34.506244+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:13.151534
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON STATE’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
STURNS, Judge.
On original submission, in addressing the State’s petition for discretionary review, we held that appellant had preserved Batson error for appellate review notwithstanding that his trial objection was interposed after the petit jury was sworn but prior to dismissal of veniremembers. The basis of our conclusion rested on the proposition that it was incumbent upon the State to lodge an objection to the untimeliness of appellant’s motion prior to the time the trial court conducts the Batson hearing. If the trial court proceeds to hearing without the State’s objection as to appellant’s tardiness, the State’s complaint as to preservation of error for appellate review will be deemed waived. Consequently, we affirmed the judgment of the court of appeals which *83concluded that the State had exercised its peremptory challenges in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986).
In its motion for rehearing the State argues that this Court’s opinion on original submission is contrary to the dictates of Rule 52(a), Tex.R.App.Proc., which reads:
In order to preserve a complaint for appellate review, a party must have presented to the trial court a timely request, objection or motion, stating the specific grounds for the ruling he desired the court to make if the specific grounds were not apparent from the context. It is also necessary for the complaining party to obtain a ruling upon the party’s request, objection or motion. If the trial judge refuses to rule, an objection to the court’s refusal to rule is sufficient to preserve the complaint. It is not necessary to formally except to the rulings or orders of the trial court.
We agree with the State. Implicit in Rule 52(a), Tex.R.App.Proc., is the requirement that only the party seeking to appeal an adverse ruling by the trial court is burdened with the obligation of interposing a timely objection to the trial court’s action. In the case sub judice it was the appellant who sought to appeal the trial court’s adverse ruling in regards to the appellant’s Batson motion. In Henry v. State, 729 S.W.2d 732, 737 (Tex.Cr.App.1987), this Court specifically held:
... We prospectively declare that a defendant may make a timely objection within the Batson lines if such objection is made after the composition of the jury is made known but before the jury is sworn and the venire panel is discharge. [Emphasis in original.][1]
Thus, at the time of appellant’s trial in January of 1988, a timely objection for purposes of Batson was to be interposed prior to the petit jury being sworn and the venire panel being dismissed. Naturally, had the State desired to prevent the trial court from conducting a Batson hearing and making a ruling at the conclusion of the hearing it would have been obligatory to inform the trial court of appellant’s tardiness in making the appropriate motion. However, for appellate purposes the State has no obligation at the trial level to make a contemporaneous objection to appellant’s failure to make a contemporaneous objection. The fact that the trial court proceeded to conduct a Batson hearing is irrelevant to the issue of whether the appellant actually preserved error. The State’s obligation is to bring to the appellate court’s attention the fact that the appellant was dilatory in preserving error for appellate review. As was stated by this court in Tallant v. State, 742 S.W.2d 292, 294 (Tex.Cr.App.1987):
... Just as an appellant must properly present points of error to the court of appeals for its decision in order to complain of an adverse determination by way of ground for review, we hold that the State must call to the attention of the court of appeals in orderly and timely fashion that an alleged error was not preserved, [emphasis added.]
The State brought to the attention of the court of appeals that in accordance *84with case law appellant failed to timely object on the basis of Batson, and therefore the error was not preserved for appellate review. Having concluded that the State was correct in its assertion, the judgment of the court of appeals is reversed and the cause remanded to that court for consideration of the issue of whether appellant was denied effective assistance of counsel.
McCORMICK, P.J., concurs in result.
For reasons stated in this Court’s opinion on original submission, BERCHELMANN, J., dissents, joined by CLINTON and TEAGUE, JJ.

. The entire text of Article 35.261, V.A.C.C.P., reads:
(a) After the parties have delivered their lists to the clerk under Article 35.26 of this code and before the court has impanelled the jury, the defendant may request the court to dismiss the array and call a new array in the case. The court shall grant the motion of a defendant for dismissal of the array if the court determines that the defendant is a member of an identifiable racial group, and that the attorney representing the state exercised peremptory challenges for the purpose of excluding persons from the jury on the basis of their race, and that the defendant has offered evidence of relevant facts that tend to show that challenges made by the attorney representing the state were made for reasons based on race. If the defendant establishes a prima facie case, the burden then shifts to the attorney representing the state to give a racially neutral explanation for the challenges. The burden of persuasion remains with the defendant to establish purposeful discrimination.
(b) If the court determines that the attorney representing the state challenged prospective jurors on the basis of race, the court shall call a new array on the case.
At the time of appellant’s trial, Henry, supra, had been handed down by this Court and Article 35.261, supra, was in effect.