Court Opinion

ID: 9682406
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:10:55.940853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:39.151639
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
concurring.
The issue that is presented to this Court in this cause is whether the Beaumont Court of Appeals correctly held that the jury had been “selected” prior to the time appellant had voluntarily absented himself from the proceedings.
The court of appeals held that “when the parties handed in their respective jury lists, with the challenges noted thereon, it was purely a ministerial act for the clerk to ‘call off the first twelve names on the lists.’ Art. 35.26(a), V.A.C.C.P. These unstricken names constituted the jury and had been selected (for purposes of Art. 33.03, V.A.C. C.P.), insofar as shown by our record, before appellant absented himself from further attendance upon his trial.” (My *94Emphasis). Miller v. State, 623 S.W.2d 491 (Tex.App.—Beaumont 1981).
Art. 35.26(a), supra, provides in pertinent part as follows:
When the parties have made or declined to make their peremptory challenges, they shall deliver their lists to the clerk. Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, (which is not applicable to this cause), the clerk shall, if the case be in the district court, call off the first twelve names on the list that have not been stricken ... Those whose names are called shall be the jury.
Art. 33.03, V.A.C.C.P., in pertinent part, provides that a defendant may waive his right to be present at his trial, inter alia, if he voluntarily absents himself after the jury has been “selected” when trial is before a jury.
It is obvious to me that the court of appeals decided this cause by construing Art. 35.26(a), supra, with Art. 33.03, supra, or vice versa. Because I believe that the court of appeals used the right tack, even though its opinion might have some loose language therein that is unnecessary to its opinion, I would refuse appellant’s petition for discretionary review as having been improvidently granted.
The facts of this cause reflect that during the jury selection process, but prior to the clerk calling off the first twelve names on the jury lists which had not been stricken by the parties, appellant voluntarily absented himself from any further proceedings. The trial court found, after a hearing, that “prior to the voluntary absence of the defendant a jury was selected by the clerk as per the list tendered by the prosecution and defense counsel.” thus ruling over objection that the trial must go on, even without the presence of the star, the appellant.
It should be obvious to anyone that in this instance the jury that was going to hear appellant’s case was not “selected” until it was first determined which twelve individuals were in fact the first twelve who had not been stricken by the parties or excused by the trial judge. Thus, I do not believe, as the majority opinion implies, that the issue can be resolved without considering the provisions of Art. 33.03, supra, in conjunction with the provisions of Art. 35.26(a), supra, or vice versa, which is why I must only concur.
In Pogue v. State, 553 S.W.2d 368 (Tex.Cr.App.1977), this Court held that where, before the jury was sworn, but after the clerk had called out the names of those individuals who would make up the jury, the defendant’s attorney called the trial court’s attention to the fact that a juror whom counsel had struck was going to be mistakenly allowed to sit on the jury, it was reversible error for the trial court to allow that juror to continue to serve. Cf. Acosta v. State, 522 S.W.2d 528 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); Bagwell v. State, 657 S.W.2d 526 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1983) (P.D.R. Refused).
In this instance, appellant does not assert that there was anything wrong with the jury lists that were filed with the clerk, which reflected the names of the first twelve persons whose names had not been stricken by either side or had not been excused by the trial court. Art. 35.26(a), supra. Thus, the jury that heard this cause was in fact the jury that had been “selected” by the parties to hear appellant’s cause prior to appellant voluntarily absenting himself, causing the provisions of Art. 33.03, supra, to come into play.
Because the record clearly reflects that the jury had been “selected” prior to the time appellant voluntarily absented himself, the majority correctly holds that pursuant to Art. 33.03, supra, appellant waived his right to be present during his trial.
For the above reasons, I only concur.