Court Opinion

ID: 9767870
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:31:17.597983+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:33.617184
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON STATE’S SECOND MOTION FOR REHEARING
ONION, Presiding Judge.
In a second motion for rehearing, the State no longer disputes that admission of the confession without excising appellant’s remark about carrying a pistol was error. Nevertheless, the State again urges that this error does not call for reversal of the conviction. We remain convinced that this contention was properly disposed of in the opinion overruling the State’s first Motion for Rehearing.
It has long been held that the admission of improper evidence will not require reversal if the same facts are proved by “other and proper” testimony. See 5 Tex.Jur.2d, Appeal and Error — Criminal, Sec. 446, p. 704 (1959). Frequently referred to as the “General Rule,” this rule has been cited so often that no useful purpose would be served at this point by canvassing the many cases in which it appears.
More important for the present consideration is what might be termed a *499corollary of the general rule. While an accused may waive the error of improper admission of evidence if such evidence comes in elsewhere without objection, he does not waive the error if he offers “testimony to rebut, destroy, or explain” the improperly admitted evidence. 1 Branch’s Ann.P.C.2d, Sec. 119, p. 134 (1956); see also: 5 Tex.Jur.2d, Appeal and Error— Criminal, Sec. 443, p. 695 (1959). Contrary to the State’s assertion that our decision in this case creates a new “exception” to the general rule, our research indicates that this rule is at least three-quarters of a century old. See Dawson v. State, 38 Tex.Cr.R. 9, 40 S.W. 731 (1897). The underlying rationale of this rule was explained in Autry v. State, 159 Tex.Cr.R. 419, 264 S.W.2d 735 (1954). There it was held that an accused must not sit mutely or waive his error if he attempts to explain the surrounding circumstances of improperly admitted evidence. Autry at 736. Accord: Garza v. State, 397 S.W.2d 847 (Tex.Cr.App.1965). Cf. Nicholas v. State, 502 S.W.2d 169 (Tex.Cr.App.1973) (Opinion on Rehearing).1
In his concurrence to the opinion overruling the first Motion for Rehearing, Judge Morrison buttresses this position by citing Harrison v. United States, 392 U.S. 219, 88 S.Ct. 2008, 20 L.Ed.2d 1047 (1968). Although the precise issue in the instant case is not identical, the effect is the same: But for the improper admission of the accused’s confession, he would not have testified. Harrison, 392 U.S. at 225, 88 S.Ct. 2008. The record clearly shows that the appellant would not have testified if the confession had not been admitted. Only after the confession was admitted without deleting the statement, “I always carry a pistol with me because I shot and killed a man in Lubbock not too long ago and I am afraid of his people,” did appellant feel compelled to testify. In addition to the portion of the record quoted in Judge Morrison’s concurrence, supra, the defense attorney prefaced appellant’s appearance on the stand by saying,
“But I want to be sure I have got my record clear on this point. We are not —if he does elect to take the Stand, we are not, by doing this, intending to waive any of his objections.”
Certainly a mere recitation to this effect is not a talisman which invariably prevents an accused from waiving error, but under the facts of this case we are unwilling to hold that appellant waived the error. See Nicholas, supra, 502 S.W.2d at 173 (Opinion on State’s Motion for Rehearing).
From what has been said thus far, it is apparent that the cases cited by the dissent to the first Motion for Rehearing are distinguishable. Those cases, like numerous others, concern the general rule of waiver. They do not involve a situation such as in the case at bar where an accused attempts to explain or mitigate a seemingly incriminating statement in his confession. A case more germane to the present discussion is Phillips v. State, 166 Tex.Cr.R. 206, 312 S.W.2d 644 (1958), where this court recognized the appellant’s right to counter improper evidence without waiving the error, but also said,
“Before this rule comes into application, it must appear that the appellant was required, under the circumstances of the case, to testify in order to explain or minimize the injury and that his testimony had that effect.” Phillips at 646.
As the vigorous dissent to Phillips indicates, this criterion is not easily applied. In the instant case the harmful effect of the statement is obvious, but the State urges that appellant’s testimony merely reiterated the truth of the statement. Al*500though this determination may often present very close questions, as in Phillips, we hold that the testimony in this case is sufficient to invoke the rule. We also observe that in spite of the language in Phillips the rule is more often phrased in terms of evidence which “rebuts, destroys, or explains” improper evidence. Therefore, it is enough that evidence explains the statement without necessarily rebutting or destroying it.2
The general rule is a sensible and useful device and today’s decision should not be viewed as a dilution of or a retreat from it; however, its application is not universal. Nor should it be employed to whipsaw an accused into a position where he must acquiesce in the admission of improper evidence or waive the error of its admission when he seeks to combat it. The long standing rule that an accused may offer evidence to rebut, destroy or explain improper evidence without waiving his objection was correctly applied to this case by our prior opinions.
For the reasons stated, the State’s Second Motion for Rehearing is overruled.

. We disagree with the contention made in the dissent to the overruling of the first Motion for Rehearing that East v. State, 420 S.W.2d 414 (Tex.Cr.App.1967) overruled Autry. East merely cites Autry as authority for the general rule which is recited in that opinion. But Autry went further and concluded that the general rule did no? apply for the reasons already discussed. No similar issue was presented in East.

. Two other cases contain potentially troublesome language. In Robbins v. State, 481 S.W.2d 419 (Tex.Cr.App.1972) we applied the general rule of waiver after we said: “The record reflects that the appellant, himself, testified about the events surrounding the second transaction and gave his version of them.” Also in Batiste v. State, 464 S.W. 2d 149 (Tex.Cr.App.1971), we held: “We need not pass upon the legality of this search (of appellant’s person) because appellant testified and gave his versi.on of the arrest and asserted that the arresting officer put the glasses on his person.” Initially we observe that the facts of those cases are entirely different from the one sub judice. In addition, the opinions in those two cases were written for the court by Judge Morrison after his decisions in Autry and Phillips but, obviously, before his concurrence in this case.