Court Opinion

ID: 9775859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:11:10.743272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:31.544168
License: Public Domain

BLEIL, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the majority’s decision reversing this case and remanding it for a new trial.
In two points of error Janak’s attorney claims that the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law. In reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we look at all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found each element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Rivera v. State, 808 S.W.2d 80, 91 (Tex.Crim.App.1991); Butler v. State, 769 S.W.2d 234, 239 (Tex.Crim.App.1989). I agree that there is legally sufficient evidence, as outlined in the court’s opinion, that Janak was the person who drove while intoxicated. If the points of error can be said to challenge the factual sufficiency of the evidence, that challenge should be sustained.
The authority of courts of appeals to determine whether the evidence pertaining to an element of a criminal offense insufficient because it is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence is currently unsettled. In Meraz v. State, 785 S.W.2d 146, 156 (Tex.Crim.App.1990), the Court of Criminal Appeals reserved decision on the question, except as to affirmative defenses. I believe that under Tex, Const, art. V, § 6 the courts of appeals are conclusive on all fact questions and have the constitutional authority and obligation to decide whether the evidence is factually sufficient. This view is recorded in detail in a recent article, See Susan Bleil & Charles Bleil, The Court of Criminal Appeals Versus the Constitution: The Con-clusivity Question, 23 St. Mahy’s L.J. 423 (1991). More recently, a court of appeals expressed its opinion that courts of appeals have the power to review the factual sufficiency of the evidence relative to the proof of the elements of an offense in Stone v. State, 823 S.W.2d 375 (Tex.App. — Austin 1992, no pet. h.).
I concur in the court’s decision because I believe that the evidence is legally sufficient to support the conviction but that the case needs to be reversed and remanded because of other trial court error. Even if we exercised our constitutional authority to review for the factual sufficiency of the evidence and found it to be factually insufficient, the proper remedy would be to reverse and remand the cause for a new trial. *806See Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31, 42-43, 102 S.Ct. 2211, 2218-19, 72 L.Ed.2d 652 (1982); Stone v. State, 823 S.W.2d at 381 n. 9; Susan Bleil & Charles Bleil, The Court of Criminal Appeals Versus the Constitution: The Conclusivity Question, 23 St. MaRy’s L.J. 423, 456.
For these reasons, I concur with the view set forth in the majority opinion, which means that the case may be retried, and not that set forth in the dissenting opinion, which would bar a retrial.