Court Opinion

ID: 9779454
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:51:12.369484+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:25.846537
License: Public Domain

CHEW, Justice,
dissenting.
While I agree with almost all of the majority opinion and would prefer to embrace the majority’s outcome, I must respectfully dissent on Point of Error No. One. I believe that the trial court impinged upon the jury’s role as the ultimate fact finder by precluding them from making up their own mind on Appellant’s defense of third-party guilt. The threshold for what constitutes relevant evidence is comparatively low. Evidence is “relevant” that has “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Tex.R.CRIm.Evid. 401. “All relevant evidence is admissible, except as otherwise provided by ... these rules.... Evidence which is not relevant is inadmissible.” TexR.CRIM.Evto. 402.
However weak it might be, I find evidence that there had been other suspects and that there were unmatehable fingerprints at the scene of the crime to be relevant. Moreover, the cases cited by the majority, in my mind, call for a conclusion contrary to the one made. In each of those eases, the objectionable evidence was admitted by the trial court over the defendant’s objections. Finally, in each case, the evidence, although found relevant, was held inadmissible on other grounds; either under Rule 403 (excluding evidence whose probative value is outweighed by its prejudicial effect); Rule 404(b) (excluding evidence of other wrong acts); or Rule 702 (relating to the admissibility of expert testimony).1

. In Montgomery, 810 S.W.2d at 393, appellant was tried simultaneously under two indictments for indecency with a child committed against two of his three daughters. One of appellant’s former wives, not the mother of his daughters, testified, over appellant’s objections on the grounds of relevancy and extraneous offense evidence, that in her experience, appellant would "quite frequently" "walk around in the nude” in front of his children “[w]ith erections.” The Court of Appeals reversed, holding such evidence inadmissible, even though relevant in accordance with Rule 402, on the basis that such evidence constituted extraneous offense evidence and was therefore inadmissible under Rule 404. Id. at 393. (“Where the appellate court can say with confidence that by no reasonable perception of common experience can it be concluded that proffered evidence has a tendency to make the existence of a fact of consequence more or less probable than it would otherwise be, then it can *523be said the trial court abused its discretion to admit that evidence.”) Id. at 391.
In Moreno, 858 S.W.2d at 457, appellant was convicted for the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnaping John Cruz. Appellant’s confession and the testimony of Cisneros was admitted over the appellant's objection showing that two months prior, appellant had planned to kidnap, hold for ransom, and then kill Robert Cisneros, whom appellant believed to be the nephew of the mayor of San Antonio. On appeal, the evidence was expressly found to be relevant but nevertheless was held inadmissible under Rule 403 on the ground that it was unduly prejudicial. Moreno, 858 S.W.2d at 464.
In Duckett, 797 S.W.2d at 907, appellant was indicted on charges of indecency with a child. At issue was the expert testimony of a certified social worker who testified as to the six elements or phases of "Child Sexual Abuse Syndrome,” and then applied those six elements to the facts of the case, indirectly bolstering the testimony of the child-victim. The appellate court reversed the trial court, finding the expert's testimony inadmissible under Rule 702. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the court of appeals and found the testimony admissible. Again the issue turned not on relevancy but on the proper use of such expert testimony. Id. at 917-20.