Court Opinion

ID: 9778910
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:25:38.689072+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:15.703864
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON REHEARING
WHITTINGTON, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I do not agree that this case is distinguishable from Ex parte Poe, 751 S.W.2d 873 (Tex.Crim.App.1988), and I do not agree that the State has waived any right to complain of the trial court’s failure to enter a deadly weapon finding in accordance with the jury verdict. Accordingly, I would grant the motion for rehearing, remand the cause to the trial court and order that the judgment be reformed.
The indictment in this cause contains an allegation that appellant knowingly and intentionally caused the death of the victim by stabbing the victim “with a knife, a deadly weapon.” Similarly, the jury charge authorized conviction of appellant if the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant caused the death of the victim by stabbing him “with a knife, a deadly weapon.” The jury found appellant guilty as charged in the indictment. However, the judgment does not contain an affirmative finding that appellant used a deadly weapon in the commission of the offense.
Article 42.12 § 3g(a)(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides, inter alia, as follows:
Upon affirmative finding that the defendant used or exhibited a deadly weapon during the commission of an offense or during immediate flight therefrom, the trial court shall enter the finding in the judgment of the court.
The trier of fact is responsible for making the affirmative finding concerning use of a deadly weapon. Ex parte Thomas, 638 S.W.2d 905, 907 (Tex.Crim.App.1982). This affirmative finding can be made in three different ways: (1) by a finding of guilty “as charged in the indictment” when the indictment specifically characterizes the weapon used as “a deadly weapon”; (2) by a finding of guilty “as charged in the indictment” when the weapon named in the indictment is a deadly weapon as a matter of law; and (3) by an affirmative finding to a special issue submitted to the jury on whether the weapon used by the defendant was a deadly weapon. Polk v. State, 693 S.W.2d 391, 394 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). Once the trier of fact has made the affirmative finding, the court must make an entry in the judgment reflecting this finding; he has no discretion to do otherwise. Ex parte Poe, 751 S.W.2d at 876.
In the present case, the indictment alleged that appellant used a deadly weapon in the commission of the offense, and the jury found appellant guilty as charged in the indictment. Once they had made this finding, the court was required to enter this finding in the judgment. However, the court did not do so.
A trial court may correct an error which is clerical in nature by entry of a judgment nunc pro tunc. Ex parte Poe, 751 S.W.2d at 877. Accordingly, I would grant the *338motion for rehearing and remand the cause to the trial court and order that the judgment be reformed to include an affirmative finding that appellant used a deadly weapon in the commission of the offense. See Rivera v. State, 716 S.W.2d 68, 74 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1986, pet. ref d).