Court Opinion

ID: 9774094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:08:32.775127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:01.891591
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority opinion’s treatment of the statutory interpretation question and its failure to consider the legislative history of this statute, Art. 4476-15b, § 2(a). See maj. op. at 786 and n. 4. Based on my experience in both Studer v. State, 799 S.W.2d 263 (Tex.Crim.App.1990), and Dillehey v. State, 815 S.W.2d 623 (Tex.Crim.App.1991), it is clear that often ambiguity in a statute is not apparent until the legislative history is researched and the true legislative intent is discerned. Thus, when the majority says:
If the plain language of a statute would lead to absurd results, or if the language is not plain but rather ambiguous, then and only then, out of absolute necessity, is it constitutionally permissible for a court to consider, in arriving at a sensible interpretation, such extratex-tual factors as executive or administrative interpretations of the statute or legislative history.
Boykin, Op. at p. 785. (footnote omitted) (emphasis in original), it is considering the cart before the horse.
In Studer, 799 S.W.2d 263, this Court was confronted with interpreting for the first time the recently amended Art. V, § 12, Tex. Const., and Art. 1.14(b), Y.A.C.C.P.; specifically we had to interpret the meaning of the terms “indictment” and “information” under the amendments. Both terms, heretofore, had clear and unambiguous meanings which, germane to the issue at hand, mandated that a charging instrument that did not contain all of the requisite elements of the charged offense was NOT an indictment or information. Under the majority’s reasoning in the case at bar, we should have gone no farther in Studer and maintained the “old” definitions. However, after an extensive review of legislative history (the severely maligned “exiratextual factors” abhorred by the majority), this Court determined that the legislature did not intend to define an “indictment” or “information” as an instrument alleging all the constituent elements of an offense. See discussion id. at 268-271. Only by consulting the legislative history was the Court able to discover and then remove the ambiguity as to what constituted an indictment (or information) and effectuate the legislature’s intent in proposing and passing the amendments.
The same held true in Dillehey where this Court was called upon to determine whether a defendant could appeal from a deferred adjudication probation under Art. 44.01(j), Y.A.C.C.P., the code provision authorizing the State’s right to appeal. Applying a strict construction to the statute, without consulting the legislative history, easily led to the result reached by the dissent in Dillehey, as well as the court of appeals in that case. See Dillehey, 815 S.W.2d 623 (Baird, J., dissenting) and Dillehey v. State, 788 S.W.2d 154 (Tex.App.— Dallas 1990). The undiscovered ambiguity of this statutory provision only became apparent when the legislative history, specifically the Senate floor debates, was researched. Then and only then was the ambiguity between Art. 44.01(j), Art. 44.02 (the defendant’s right to appeal) and Art. *79042.12, § 3d (now § 5) (provision for deferred adjudication), which was not recognized by the dissent or by the court of appeals, realized and dealt with. The majority of this Court of course thereby discovered and effectuated the clear intent of the legislature in passing 44.01(j), viz: to allow defendants placed on deferred adjudication probation to immediately appeal rulings on pretrial motions in compliance with Art. 44.02. Dillehey, 815 S.W.2d 623, 626-.
In my opinion, the majority’s failure to appreciate the role of legislative history in judicial interpretation of constitutional and statutory law has led to a failure to research the legislative history in this cause and thereby led the majority to an incorrect analysis and conclusion. Therefore, I must dissent.