Court Opinion

ID: 9641139
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:23:52.430708+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:35.351538
License: Public Domain

FULLER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. As is discussed in the majority opinion, there existed a prejeo-pardy manifest necessity for mistrial based on judicial error by Judge William E. Moody. This error was not minor in nature and, as is evident from the record, occurred prior to the swearing in of the jury and attachment of jeopardy. It was plain error for the court to proceed to trial. However, the court chose to do so.
The jury was sworn in but, before any evidence was heard, the court conducted a Batson hearing. Evidence before the court showed the State struck eight Hispanic women jurors. The prosecutor’s notes on some of those jurors contained disparaging remarks which could be considered as not racially neutral reasons for striking the potential jurors. The court would not or at least did not rule on the Batson motion but inquired of the Appellant if he wished to re-urge his prior overruled Motions for Mistrial. The Appellant declined as did the State. However, the State did not affirmatively urge the court to proceed to trial.
The question then arises ... why did the court deny the Appellant’s Motion for Mistrial prior to swearing in the jury panel and yet after the Batson hearing (after the jury was sworn) he granted the pretrial Motions for Mistrial without ruling on the Batson motion?
In Lee v. United States, 432 U.S. 23, 35, 97 S.Ct. 2141, 2148, 53 L.Ed.2d 80, 90 (1977), Justice Brennan, in his concurring opinion, states that where a petitioner affords “the trial judge ample opportunity to rule on his motion prior to trial, and the court, in failing to take advantage of this opportunity, permitted the attachment of jeopardy before ordering the dismissal of the information.” Justice Brennan continues on to state that “[i]n such a circumstance, the court’s action or inaction would effectively deprive petitioner of his ‘valued right’ to receive a factual determination from the first empaneled factfinder....” This is a case that clearly delineates the situation that Justice Brennan sought to protect a defendant from, that of indiscriminate rulings directed at protecting the Court, not the defendant.
The trial court simply would not rule on the Batson motion. Instead, on his own, without any urging by the State or Appellant, he decided to reverse his rulings on the prejeopardy Motions for Mistrial. This may have been intended to avoid jeopardy attaching but such action violated Appellant’s right to due process and a fair trial by his already selected peers.
It would serve no useful purpose to restate in detail the improper conduct of the prosecutor and the forcing of the Appellant to commence his voir dire of the jury panel at 5:25 p.m. after an hour and five minute voir dire by the court. I would grant the writ holding that double jeopardy barred retrial of the Appellant.