Court Opinion

ID: 9644865
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:06:56.115258+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:19.283784
License: Public Domain

OPINION DENYING THE STATE’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
MILLER, Judge.
The State in its motion for leave to file motion for rehearing maintains that
“The majority of this Court has erred in remanding this applicant to answer to the indictment in this cause, when the error which the Court has found relates only to the punishment stage of the trial.
... this cause should be remanded for the punishment phase of the trial only, under the provisions of Article 44.29, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P., as amended September 1, 1987. Acts 1987, 70th Leg., p. 2711, eh. 179.”
Art. 44.29(b), V.A.C.C.P., which became effective on August 31, 1987, provides:
“If the Court of Appeals or the Court of Criminal Appeals awards a new trial to the defendant only on the basis of an error or errors made in the punishment stage of the trial, the cause shall stand as it would have stood in case the new trial had been granted by the court below, except that the court shall commence the nevj trial as if a finding of guilt had been returned and proceed to the punishment stage of the trial under subsection (b), Sec. 2, Art. 37.07, of this Code. If the defendant elects, the court impanel a jury for the sentencing stage of the trial in the same manner as a jury is impaneled by the court for other trials before the court. At the new trial, the court shall allow both the state and the defendant to introduce evidence to show the circumstances of the offense and other evidence as permitted by Sec. 3 of Art. 37.07 of this Code.” (emphasis supplied)
In urging their motion, the State makes two assumptions that are, in our view, erroneous.
First, the State assumes that by the words “to answer the indictment” at the end of the Court’s opinion, we ordered that the applicant be retried as to guilt. We did not. Neither did we order that he be retried only as to punishment. We simply granted him relief and set aside the previous judgment of conviction, then, just as the opinion says, remanded him to the sheriff to answer the indictment.
Second, the State interprets Art. 44.29(b), supra, to be directed to this Court. It is not. The article plainly is directed at the trial court to take appropriate action in appropriate circumstances. The proper forum to urge the application of the article is the trial court.
Only if we were to instruct the trial court in violation of the article, would the State’s motion have potential merit. Since we have not instructed the trial court at all vis-a-vis Art. 44.29(b), supra, we have not instructed the trial court in violation of Art. 44.29(b).
For these reasons, the State’s motion is denied.
ONION, P.J., not participating.