Court Opinion

ID: 9778338
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:00:50.284225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:07.628862
License: Public Domain

CLINTON, Judge,
dissenting.
Concurring completely in the dissenting opinion eloquently presented by Judge Odom, as a member of the panel that decided Waller v. State, 581 S.W.2d 483 (1979),1 1 write to remark that adjudication by adage is a practice that should be abandoned along with the old saying.
*671A “rule” that it is improper “for the court to single out particular facts or specific parts of the testimony and charge thereon” is so abstract that it provides no standard at all. Taken literally it results in the proposition expounded by Judge Hawkins on motion for rehearing in Dunne v. State, 96 Tex.Cr.R. 7, 263 S.W. 608, 617 (1923):
“We think it may be stated, as a sound general rule, that the trial court is not required to charge upon any specific evidence unless it be introduced by the State for a particular purpose, and is likely to be appropriated by the jury improperly against the defendant on trial, which is illustrated by a charge limiting impeaching evidence in certain instances.”
Moreover, uttering the adage to answer the ground of error asserted in this cause only serves to divert attention from the actual holding implicit in the majority opinion. That is, that the criminal law of this State does not admit mistaken identification as a defensive issue. In that the majority errs for, as pointed out by Judge Odom, this Court has recognized mistaken identification as a defensive issue in the cases he cites.
Furthermore, by what I hope is an indiscriminate use of the term “affirmative defense” the majority opinion, as well as the portion of the Waller opinion excerpted by the majority, conveys the idea that a defensive theory must reach the level of an affirmative defense — perhaps even as defined in V.T.C.A., Penal Code Section 2.04. The Court has expressly and succinctly stated otherwise in, e. g, Gavia v. State, 488 S.W.2d 420 (Tex.Cr.App.1972): “When a defensive theory is raised by evidence from any source and a charge is properly requested, it must be submitted to the jury. It is then the jurors’ duty, under the proper instructions, to determine whether the evidence is credible and supports the defense.”
The defense of mistaken identity is akin to but is something other than the defense of alibi.2 See Fite v. State, 139 Tex.Cr.R. 592, 140 S.W.2d 848, 853 (Tex.Cr.App.1940). It is not labeled an affirmative defense or a defense, V.T.C.A., Penal Code Section 2.03, but that omission should not and does not disqualify mistaken identity as a defensive theory which, when properly raised and supported by evidence, must be submitted to the jury.3 Since the majority opinion will be wrongly interpreted as an expression by the Court that a defensive theory of mistaken identification need not be the subject of an instruction to the jury as a defensive matter, I respectfully dissent.

. While not articulated, my special concurrence in Waller was based on the notion that since the panel found that the issue of mistaken identity was not raised by the evidence the arguendo statements that followed that finding were of little moment and resolution of the issue should await the instant cause where it is squarely presented.

. Indeed, in this case an instruction on alibi was given that is almost identical to one suggested by McClung, Jury Charges for Criminal Practice (Rev.Ed. January 1979) 215, “Alibi.”

. Faulted by an earlier concurrence for not rendering an advisory opinion that presents an appropriate instruction concerning a proposition the Court holds need not be submitted at all, I am content to distill from decisions of several jurisdictions which met the challenge at least fifty years ago and thereafter the following:
You must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the accuracy of identification of defendant as perpetrator of the offense charged, and you are instructed that if from facts and circumstances in evidence you have a reasonable doubt as to whether defendant is the person who committed the offense alleged in the indictment you will find the defendant not guilty of the offense.
See, e. g., People v. De Hoog, 100 Cal.App. 235, 279 P. 1067 (1929); Noblett v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 194 Va. 241, 72 S.E.2d 241, 244 (1952); State v. Fleming, 228 S.C. 129, 89 S.E.2d 104 (1955); Salley v. United States, 122 U.S.App.D.C. 359, 361, n. 2, 353 F.2d 897, 899, n. 2 (1965); Macklin v. United States, 133 U.S. App.D.C. 139, 409 F.2d 174 (1969); see also admonition of Gregory v. United States, 133 U.S.App.D.C. 317, 410 F.2d 1016, 1024 (1969) that a careful trial judge may avoid danger of selective comment on facts while still directing attention of the jury to “particular issues most critical to the case” such as reliability of pretrial identification.