Court Opinion

ID: 9668179
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:04:55.349369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:43.386213
License: Public Domain

MALONEY, Judge,
concurring.
Today a majority of the Court holds that the rule of law pronounced in Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 102 S.Ct. 2083, 72 L.Ed.2d 416 (1982), applying the federal double jeopardy clause is not the only standard under which the State may be precluded from retrial when it has intentionally committed error resulting in mistrial; but that the double jeopardy clause of the Texas Constitution, when the prosecutor is either intentional or reckless in causing a mistrial, will also prevent retrial. The Court defines recklessness as it is defined in the Penal Code, as being “aware but consciously disregard[ing] the risk that an objectionable event for which [the prosecutor] was responsible would require a mistrial at the defendant’s request.” Majority opinion at 699. See and compare Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 6.03(c).
The dissent takes issue with this holding and with the rule that the Texas Constitution provides greater protection than the double jeopardy clause of the federal constitution. The federal double jeopardy provision derived from the common law notions of autre-fois acquit and autrefois convict:
The origin and history of the Double Jeopardy Clause are hardly a matter of dispute. See generally [U.S. v.] Wilson; supra, [420 U.S. 332] at 339-340[, 95 S.Ct. 1013, 1019-1020, 43 L.Ed.2d 232 (1975) ]; Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 187-188[, 78 S.Ct. 221, 223-24, 2 L.Ed.2d 199] (1957); id., at 200[, 78 S.Ct. at 230] (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). The constitutional provision had its origin in the three common-law pleas of autrefois acquit, autrefois convict, and pardon. These three pleas prevented the retrial of a person who had previously been acquitted, convicted or pardoned for the same offense.
United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 87, 98 S.Ct. 2187, 2192, 57 L.Ed.2d 65 (1978). The double jeopardy clause contained in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: “No person shall ... be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb[J” Article I, section 14 of the Texas Constitution provides that
No person, for the same offense, shall be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty, nor shall a person be again put upon trial for the same offense, after a verdict of not guilty in a court of competent jurisdiction.
The Interpretive Commentary to Article I, section 14, although not authority, is instructive in explaining that the Texas Constitution is broader than the common law:
The guaranty in this section of the Texas Constitution is broader in scope [than the common law], for not only can a person not be put on trial a second tíme for an offense of which he has once been acquitted or convicted, but he may not be put on trial a second time for an offense of which he has once been placed in jeopardy. Hence, jeopardy, meaning danger or hazard, can be based upon a prosecution discharged for valid causes without a verdict, while *703former conviction and acquittal are based upon verdicts rendered. Anderson v. State, 24 Tex.App. 705, 7 S.W. 40 (1886); Steen v. State, 92 Tex.Crim. 99, 242 S.W. 1047 (1922).
A person is in jeopardy, then, when he is put on trial before a court of competent jurisdiction on an indictment or information sufficient to sustain conviction, a jury has been charged with his deliverance, the indictment or information read to the jury, and the plea of the accused heard. See Johnson v. State, 73 Tex.Crim. 133, 164 S.W. 833 (1914); Steen v. State, supra.
Tex. Const, art. I, § 14 interp. commentary (Vernon 1984) (citations omitted).1
With these remarks, I join the opinion of the Court.

.Judge McCormick interprets article I, section 14 as being narrower than the double jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment. He says the Texas provision does not seem to have any application in the mistrial setting because the Texas provision "contains'a single command” and that command is "that the government cannot prosecute someone for an offense for which he has been acquitted." Dissenting opinion at 706 n. 5 (McCormick, P.J., dissenting). In making this argument Judge McCormick apparently makes the assumption that the language at the end of section 14, “after a verdict of not guilty” modifies the entire provision, not just the clause immediately preceding it. To the contrary, this Court has long held that the Texas double jeopardy provision applies after a conviction, as well as acquittal. Ex parte Jewel, 535 S.W.2d 362, 365 (Tex.Crim.App. 1976); see also Tex. Const, art. I, § 14 interp. commentary (Vernon 1984).