Court Opinion

ID: 9683292
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:26:05.693472+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:46.911131
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the result the majority opinion reaches. However, I find that I must write because of what happened in this cause. I acknowledge that what the trial judge stated to Reverend L.C. Curry might have been said without any evil or wrongful intent.
Unfortunately, however, what happened here appears to be a recurring event throughout this State. The remarks the trial judge in this cause made to Reverend’ *125Curry reflect unfavorably upon the jury selection and our judicial system. They cannot be condoned. They could have caused a reversal of the appellant’s conviction, even if the trial had been an errorless one.
As to what happened in this instance, which involved Reverend Curry, I adopt in toto what Chief Justice Nye of the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals stated in Price v. State, 626 S.W.2d 833 (Tex.Cr.App.—Corpus Christi 1981).
The religious beliefs of the citizens of the State of Texas, whatever they might be, are far too important to be subjected to mockery, derision, ridicule, or criticism by any member of the trial judiciary of this State. I, for one, believe that the judiciary of this State owes Reverend Curry an apology. Because I cannot speak for the entire judiciary of the State of Texas, I cannot extend that apology. However, as a member of that body, I personally apologize to Reverend Curry for what he was subjected to in this cause. I pray that this is the last time I will ever read in an appellate record, or elsewhere, where a citizen of this State has been castigated by a member of the trial judiciary of this State because of his religious beliefs. If what happened in this cause happens again, and a conviction results and is appealed to this Court, I will be the first to vote for a reversal of that conviction, solely for that reason and no other.