Court Opinion

ID: 9680964
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:41:45.913443+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:31.632906
License: Public Domain

TAFT, Justice,
concurring.
The majority follows Court of Criminal Appeals cases that have found some harm from the circumstance of the error itself, i.e., failure to submit a jury instruction on a lesser included offense when the evidence raised the issue. I find myself in agreement with Judge Teague’s concurring and dissenting opinion in Moreno v. State, 702 S.W.2d 636 (Tex.Crim.App.1986). Judge Teague found that the majority opinion had not been faithful to the test enunciated in Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157 (Tex.Crim.App.1984), a case with which Judge Teague strongly disagreed causing him to refer to it as “Almanza the Terrible.” See Moreno, 702 S.W.2d at 641-42 (Teague, J. concurring and dissenting). Judge Teague proceeded to perform an Almanza harm analysis, concluding there was no harm. Id. at 642-43. I would likewise urge that in this case an Almanza harm analysis could very well result in a holding that appellant has shown that no actual harm befell him from the absence of lesser included offense instructions in this case. Even though we are bound by precedent from a higher court, we are not gagged. I urge the Court of Criminal Appeals to revisit this issue. Therefore, I respectfully concur.