Court Opinion

ID: 9775925
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:12:51.576049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:32.054303
License: Public Domain

HUDSON, Justice,
concurring.
The sole issue in this case concerns the propriety of the trial court’s ruling on a *105challenge for cause lodged against venireman Charles Young. Believing that appellant’s counsel has preserved the issue for review, I concur in the result only.
The supreme court has held that to preserve error arising from a trial court’s denial of a challenge for cause, counsel must advise the trial court, prior to exercising his peremptory challenges, that he will 1) exhaust his peremptory challenges in the attempted exclusion of objectionable veniremen, and 2) he must then identify objectionable veniremen who will remain on the panel for want of additional peremptory challenges. Hallett v. Houston Northwest Medical Center, 689 S.W.2d 888, 890 (Tex.1985).
The majority concludes appellants’ counsel “exercised” his peremptory challenges when he physically passed his strike list to the court. The majority further reasons that we cannot discern from the record before us whether counsel’s announcement was timely because we cannot precisely fix the time when the strike list was tendered to the court. Adopting rationale recited by the Seventh Court of Appeals, the majority concludes appellants’ counsel has failed to meet his burden of presenting a sufficient record to establish reversible error. See Beavers v. Northrop Worldwide Aircraft, 821 S.W.2d 669 (Tex.App.—Amarillo 1991, writ denied). I do not believe the supreme court intended such a hypertechnical interpretation of its holding in Hallett.
Counsel advised the trial court he had exhausted his peremptory challenges, and he identified two objectionable veniremen. This action was contemporaneous with counsel’s submission of the strike list. His announcement was made either moments before or moments after he physically tendered his strike list to the court. Unlike the scenario presented in Hallett, appellants’ counsel identified the objectionable veniremen before the jury was selected. The venire panel was still assembled in the courtroom. No jurors had been seated; no names of jurors had been announced. If the trial judge perceived any error in his denial of appellants’ challenge for cause, he still had ample opportunity to rectify the mistake. I believe appellants’ counsel preserved the issue for review.
Notwithstanding these observations, I would affirm the judgment of the trial court. After examining the answers given by Mr. Young, I can find no bias or prejudice sufficient to disqualify him as a matter of law. For these reasons, I concur.