Court Opinion

ID: 9638438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:43:56.753244+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:06.537403
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
dissenting.
After this Court granted the petition for discretionary review that was filed on behalf of Fred Kenneth Thomas, hereinafter referred to as the appellant, the main issue that this Court had to resolve was quite simple: Was the appellant’s refusal to submit to a breath test admissible against him? 1 However, after carefully reading the majority opinion, and trying to get a handle on this issue as it may be found or discussed in the majority opinion, I find that I have not had so much fun since I was a very young boy trying to catch a greased pig. As many persons will attest, such can be an almost impossible feat. Trying to make heads or tails out of the ungreased majority opinion closely resembles trying to catch a greased pig.
On direct appeal, in an unpublished opinion, the Dallas Court of Appeals rejected the contention of the appellant, that the trial court erred in admitting over objection testimony of a Dallas police officer that he, the appellant, had refused to submit to a breathalyzer test. See Thomas v. State, No. 05-84-00010-CR, January 18,1985. In so holding, the court of appeals relied upon its decision of Gressett v. State, 669 S.W.2d 748 (Tex.App. — Dallas 1983) (Petition for discretionary reviewed granted December 21, 1983, still pending), which in turn had relied upon South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U.S. 553, 103 S.Ct. 916, 74 L.Ed.2d 748 (1983), which held that evidence of a defendant’s refusal to submit to a blood-alcohol test is admissible at trial. In a very and rather convoluted and equivocal way, the majority opinion reaches this same result. Cf. Note: “A Further Diminution of the Self-Incrimination Privilege,” 6 American Journal of Trial Advocacy (Spring, 1986), (“The holding of the [Supreme] Court is unequivocal; refusal evidence can now be used against an accused at trial. The reasoning behind the decision is specious, however, because the Court’s reasoning is too scant to be convoluted.” (485). Also see Note: “Admissibility of Refusal to Submit to Blood Alcohol Test and the Fifth Amendment,” 17 Creighton Law Review (1983).
We granted the appellant’s petition for discretionary review on October 23, 1985, which was after the Supreme Court had decided South Dakota v. Neville, supra. However, on May 26, 1982, this Court had previously refused the State’s petition for discretionary review in Casselberry v. State, 631 S.W.2d 542, in which the El Paso Court of Appeals quickly, decisively, and succinctly held the following:
The State may not introduce evidence that the accused was offered and refused to take a breathalyzer test after his arrest for driving while intoxicated. Dudley v. State, 548 S.W.2d 706 (Tex.Cr.App.1977); Hitt v. State, 548 S.W.2d 732 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). Casselberry v. State, 631 S.W.2d 542, 543 (Tex.App. — El Paso 1982).
What’s going on here?
On remand from the Supreme Court, see State v. Neville, 346 N.W.2d 425 (S.D.1984), the South Dakota Supreme Court first held that the Supreme Court’s decision *717was not controlling on its decisions decided pursuant to its state constitution, because “We alone determine the extent of protection afforded under our state constitution.” The South Dakota Supreme Court held that the trial court’s holding that the defendant’s refusal to submit to the blood-alcohol test was inadmissible evidence was correct.
In so holding, the South Dakota Supreme Court first pointed out the distinction between the wording of the Fifth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, “No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself ...,” and the provisions of its State constitution, “No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to give evidence against himself ...,” which is almost identical to the like provision found in the Texas Constitution, see Art. I, Section 10, Texas Constitution, “... He shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself ...”, and, relying upon a Utah Supreme Court case, Hansen v. Owens, 619 P.2d 315 (Utah 1980), which had held that “the phrase ‘give evidence against himself,’ as used in our constitution, was intended to mean something different and broader than the phrase ‘to be a witness against himself’ as used in the federal constitution,” held that the refusal to give a blood test was evidence of a testimonial nature and thus within the protection of the privilege against self-incrimination as guaranteed by the South Dakota Constitution. 346 N.W.2d, at 429.
Also see Judge Clinton’s concurring opinion filed in Sanchez v. State, 707 S.W.2d 575 (Tex.Cr.App.1986).
The majority opinion, however, holds: “[W]e reject appellant’s claim that Article I, Section 10, supra, provides broader protection than the Fifth Amendment because of differences in language. ” (page 703). But those very distinctions in language are what make the difference.
On this point, as best I can figure out after carefully reading the majority opinion, the majority opinion tells us that all roads lead to this Court’s opinion of Olson v. State, 484 S.W.2d 756 (Tex.Cr.App.1969) (Opinion on Rehearing), which held that “compelling a handwriting exemplar or sample does not constitute compelling an accused ‘to give evidence against himself’ in violation of Article I, Section 10 of the Texas Constitution.” (772). However, this Court in Olson v. State, supra, left itself some running room when it stated the following: “Of course, the history of the privilege does not finally settle its scope or policies and the strength of these underlying policies will largely determine whether future construction will be restrictive or expansive.” (762).
Because I find that there is a legal difference between “compelling an accused to give evidence against himself” and “commenting on his failure to give a breath test,” I will leave for another day whether Olson v. State, supra, should be expressly overruled, although I would at this time expressly overrule the holding that compelling a breath test does not constitute compelling an accused to give evidence against himself in violation of Article I, Section 10, of the Texas Constitution.
The majority opinion also expressly states on page 17 of the Slip Opinion that in Texas, “The State could have legitimately relieved appellant of the relative benefit of making such a choice by compelling him to provide physical evidence of intoxication.” Does this mean that it is now permissible for the police to forcibly take ever how much blood they might want from a conscious defendant who has been arrested for driving while intoxicated? Cf. Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952).
The issue that is before this Court can be decided on procedural due course and due process of law grounds.
The usual reason for refusing to take the breath test is both consciousness of guilt and fear of results, see People v. Sudduth, 65 Cal.2d 543, 55 Cal.Rptr. 393, 421 P.2d 401 (1966), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 850, 88 S.Ct. 43, 19 L.Ed.2d 119 (1967), although there are many other independent reasons why a person might refuse to take the test, such as cost, religious scruples, distrust of the technicians, distrust of the results, etc. *718See State v. Chavez, 96 N.M. 313, 629 P.2d 1242 (N.M.App.1981). The usual reason, see supra, is also the usual reason why the prosecution seeks its admission into evidence because prosecuting attorneys know that it would be the unusual jury that could erase the inference of guilt resulting from a refusal to take the test. Also see Anno: “Admissibility in criminal case of evidence that accused refused to take test of intoxication,” 26 A.L.R.4th 112 (1983); Anno: “Refusal to submit to breathalyzer or blood alcohol test, 87 A.L.R.2d 370 (1960). In sum, admitting such a refusal into evidence amounts to decreasing the State’s burden of proof to prove the elements of the crime of driving while intoxicated. Cf. People v. Duke, 136 Mich.App. 798, 357 N.W.2d 775 (Mich.App.1984). Refusal to take the test is conduct communicating the defendant’s state of mind; it is, in essence, testimony concerning the defendant’s belief on the central issue of the case. “For the state to compel a defendant to reveal those thoughts is to require him to testify against himself and thus to violate Article I, Section 12, of the Oregon Constitution” (See Article I, Section 10, of the Texas Constitution, supra). State v. Green, 68 Or.App. 518, 684 P.2d 575, 577 (Or.App.1984).
Presiding Judge Gillette of the Oregon Court of Appeals also pointed out in State v. Green, supra, that the flaw in holding that the refusal to perform requested tests is not testimonial lies in the fact that it confuses the issues of whether the fact of refusal is inadmissible with whether it is communicative. “Determining that an action is communicative is only one step in determining whether it is constitutionally protected. So long as they are not compelled, both communicative actions and direct statements are not protected ...” The existence of legal compulsion is thus crucial to whether the evidence is admissible.
The majority opinion also holds that “appellant was not compelled to incriminate himself under Article I, Section 10, supra, when he chose to refuse to provide a breath sample” because he was given a choice. This is pure balderdash.
At the time of the appellant’s arrest and trial, although there was a requirement that a driver arrested for driving while intoxicated had to submit to a breath test, there was also the implicit power on the part of the individual to refuse to take it.
While an officer may properly request a driver to take the test, there was no statutory provision in existence at the time that would have permitted him to go further, i.e., there were no conditions placed on his refusal. “Use of the fact that he refused [to take the test] enables the state to obtain communicative evidence to which it would otherwise have no right, as a result of defendant’s refusal to provide noncommu-nicative evidence to which it also has no right. The situation is a true Hobson’s choice. Defendant’s communication was compelled; evidence of it is inadmissible under Article I, Section 12, of the Oregon Constitution.” State v. Green, supra, 684 P.2d at 579.
Furthermore, where is the relevancy of the refusal to take the test?
The argument that the refusal is relevant as circumstantial evidence of the accused’s belief that the results of the test would have been incriminating merely invites the contrary view that the admission of one’s refusal is misleading, taking the jury too far afield because there might be independent reasons — for example, cost, religious scruples, distrust of the technicians, distrust of the results — motivating one’s refusal. Cf. State v. Chavez, supra.
Lastly, the majority opinion, although acknowledging that “appellant was not informed that his refusal to provide a breath sample might be used against him at his trial,” fails to discuss the fact that the South Dakota Supreme Court, see State v. Neville, supra, on remand, held that “Since Neville was not fully informed of this consequence (that the test results could be used against him at trial), he did not voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently waive his constitutional protection of due process and prohibition against self-incrimination. *719Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s holding that Neville’s refusal to submit to the blood-alcohol test is inadmissible.” (431). The majority opinion does so because it finds, that “Appellant has not raised any claim that the failure to warn him of a consequence of his refusal violated the due course of law clause under our state constitution, Article I, Section 19, Tex. Const.” (Page 705) This is only another way that is used to “wire” around the appellant’s contention that his refusal was inadmissible evidence.
Believing that at this time I have stated enough to establish why the majority opinion needs to be rewritten, I will close with a simple: I respectfully dissent. Also see the dissenting opinions that I have filed in McCambridge v. State, 712 S.W.2d 499 (Tex.Cr.App.1986); McGinty v. State, 723 S.W.2d 719 (Tex.Cr.App.1986); and Bass v. State, 723 S.W.2d 687 (Tex.Cr.App.1986).

. At the time when the appellant was arrested and tried for committing the offense of driving while intoxicated, there was no statutory provision that permitted the State to introduce into evidence testimony going to a defendant’s refusal to provide a breath test. See fn. 4 of the majority opinion, page 698.