Court Opinion

ID: 9761100
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:31:40.794325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:20.117063
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
concurring.
Orwell, have you been reading what the Court of Criminal Appeals has been writing about objected to and unobjected to fundamental error in the trial court’s charge on guilt as well as punishment?
If not, but just to bring you up to date, I point out that based upon its decision of Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157 (Tex.Cr.App.1985), a majority of this Court holds in this cause that an accused person is not deprived of a fair and impartial trial by jury simply because the jury was instructed that it could find the appellant guilty on a theory not alleged in the indictment. Thus, it is now permissible for a trial judge to erroneously instruct the jury that it might find the defendant guilty even if the *154defendant’s guilt was based upon a theory not alleged in the indictment. Under Al-manza v. State, supra, this egregious type error does not deprive a defendant of due process or due course of law, as once guaranteed by our respective Constitutions.
I must ask: If a jury charge on guilt that enlarges upon the allegations of the indictment or information, no matter how slight or how material the degree, as to the offense with which the accused is charged with committing, if this does not constitute fundamental error, when can such error ever be calculated to injure the rights of the defendant to the extent that such error will prevent him from having a fair and impartial trial by jury? I believe that as long as Almanza v. State, supra, legally exists, the answer is going to be a simple “Never.” Cf. Robinson v. State, 553 S.W.2d 371 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).