Court Opinion

ID: 9718024
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:15:11.000224+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:02.899316
License: Public Domain

HUDSON, Justice,
concurring.
The direct and collateral effects of a crime are relevant at the punishment phase of a trial so long as they have “some bearing on the defendant’s personal responsibility and moral guilt.” Stavinoha v. State, 808 S.W.2d 76, 79 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). Crime, however, like sin, is pervasive. Every misdeed ripples through society causing a physical, emotional, or economic impact upon the victim, his family, his friends, his classmates, his co-workers, his neighbors, his acquaintances, etc. As the circle grows larger, the observable impact may lessen, but the effect of the transgression is only diffused, never extinguished. Thus, “tracing” the impact of a crime is fraught with practical difficulties.
Finitude permits us neither the time nor insight to trace the ramifications of a crime beyond its most immediate and obvious consequences. Here, the record shows that prior to the murder, the victim’s uncle was suffering from significant depression. After the murder, his depression increased. Eventually the victim’s uncle committed suicide. The State asks us to infer from this sequence of events that the uncle’s preexisting depression was aggra*781vated by the loss of his nephew. However, the victim’s uncle was already suffering from depression and the record does not reveal: (1) the cause of the preexisting depression; (2) whether that cause intensified prior to the suicide (i.e., financial difficulties, lack of self-esteem, physiological impairment, etc.); (3) whether the uncle was close to his nephew, (4) whether he was emotionally distraught on account of the murder; or (5) the length of time between the victim’s murder and the uncle’s suicide. Given the meager record presented here, I believe it was error to suggest the uncle’s suicide was a result of the complainant’s murder.
I also believe, however, that the error was harmless. See Tex.R.App. P. 44.2(b). First, the witness did not say the 'victim’s murder caused the subsequent suicide (although the cause and effect can certainly be inferred from her testimony). Second, the comment was not responsive to the prosecutor’s question. Third, the witness did not again mention the suicide. Fourth, the prosecutor did not allude to the victim’s uncle or his suicide during final argument. Fifth, although the State’s attorney asked for a life sentence, the jury assessed appellant’s punishment at only thirty years in the penitentiary. Finally, in light of the premeditated nature of the shooting, the punishment assessed by the jury appears neither harsh nor vindictive.
Believing the error did not have a substantial or injurious effect on the jury verdict, I concur in the judgment of the court.