Court Opinion

ID: 9682263
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:08:41.897949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:38.493763
License: Public Domain

OVERSTREET, Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent to the majority’s disposition of appellant’s points of error three through eight in which he complains of the trial court’s restricting of voir dire in denying his requests to ask questions of veniremembers about 15-year parole ineligibility on a life sentence for capital murder.
The constitutional right to be represented by counsel includes the right of counsel to question the veniremembers of the jury panel in order to intelligently exercise statutory challenges. Shipley v. State, 790 S.W.2d 604, 607-08 (Tex.Cr.App.1990). Voir dire questioning is proper if it seeks to discover a veniremember’s views on an issue applicable to the case. Id. at 608. Upon a guilty verdict for capital murder, the jury must answer a special issue regarding the defendant’s future dangerousness. “In assessing future dangerousness, the actual duration of the defendant’s prison sentence is indisput*623ably relevant.” Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 168, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 2194, 129 L.Ed.2d 133, 142 (1994). A prospective juror’s views regarding such are certainly a matter of grave concern for both the prosecution and the defense in preparing to try a capital murder case; in fact such views are a matter of life or death.
I dissent to the majority’s discussion and treatment of points of error three through eight.