Court Opinion

ID: 9770554
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:09:23.528364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:18.363951
License: Public Domain

MANSFIELD, Judge,
dissenting.
Because the victim in this case was hospitalized and evidently unable to leave the hospital, both the State and appellant agreed to move the proceedings to the hospital solely to hear the testimony of the victim and an attending physician. The record suggests that appellant’s trial counsel’s strategy was to obtain the victim’s testimony as quickly as possible and to conclude the trial promptly because there was a possibility the victim might die, thus leaving appellant vulnerable to a murder prosecution. The testimony was taken the next day at the hospital, ten miles outside the county seat.
Article 1.14(a) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure provides: “The defendant in a criminal prosecution for any offense may waive any rights secured him by law except that a defendant in a capital felony case may waive the right of trial by jury only in the manner permitted by Article 1.13 of the code.” The record shows clearly appellant waived any potential claim, under Art. V, Sec. 7 of the Texas Constitution, that the trial court violated said provision by taking testimony outside of the county seat.
This Court, in Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782 (Tex.Cr.App.1991), held:
If the plain language of a statute would lead to absurd results, or if the language is not plain but rather ambiguous, then and only then, out of absolute necessity, is it constitutionally permissible for a court to consider, in arriving at a sensible interpretation, such extratextural factors as executive or administrative interpretations of the statute or legislative history.
Boykin at 786-787. We have held that constitutional provisions are to be interpreted in a similar, common-sense and reasonable manner. Lanford v. Fourteenth Court of Appeals, 847 S.W.2d 581, 585 (Tex.Cr.App.1993). See C. Antieau, Constitutional Construction, Section 2.02 (1982). The Texas Supreme Court held, in Cramer v. Sheppard, 140 Tex. 271, 167 S.W.2d 147 (1942): “the rule has long prevailed in this State that constitutional provisions should not be given a technical construction that would defeat their purpose ... We are also not unmindful of the rule that constitutional and statutory provisions will not be so construed or interpreted as to lead to absurd conclusions, great public inconvenience ...” Cramer, 167 S.W.2d at 154, 155. To interpret Art. V, Sec. 7 to require automatic reversal in the present case, and the resulting expenditure of valuable time and scarce resources that would be consumed by a retrial, where only a small portion of the proceedings were held outside the county seat and within the same judicial district with appellant’s consent would be an absurd result. To hold otherwise would also prohibit jury views outside of the county seat.
Art. V, See. 7 clearly places significant restrictions on where the district court must conduct its proceedings. For instance, any action must commence in the county seat and must be concluded there. The only exception to this constitutional requirement is where — as in the present case — the parties to the action consent to a limited conduction of the proceedings outside of the county seat and it is clear from the record that doing so is in the interest of justice. See Tex. Gov’t Code, § 21.001(b).
I respectfully dissent and would reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and affirm the judgment of the trial court.