Court Opinion

ID: 9604453
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:22:05.066563+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:22.552006
License: Public Domain

WILLIAM J. CORNELIUS, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
It is presumed that a jury follows and understands a court’s charge unless there is evidence to the contrary. Hutch v. State, 922 S.W.2d 166 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). Applying the presumption that the jury followed its instructions, Hill suffered no harm because the jury was directly and explicitly told not to consider how parole might apply to Hill.
The prosecutor did obliquely mention the parole charge in his closing argument. He did not, however, mention the erroneous language in the charge, and he did not urge the jury to assess the thirty-year sentence to compensate for a possible early parole. Instead, as the State points out, the prosecution urged the jury to assess thirty years because of the fact that Hill committed three armed robberies on the same day when he had only been released from the Texas Youth Commission for four months, Hill robbed to get money to purchase drugs, and Hill showed no remorse for his actions, but rather treated the offenses and his threats against the victims flippantly. For example, the prosecutor said:
I don’t think Mr. Hill should go to prison for life. I don’t think you should give him 99, or 75, or anything like that.... [Y]ou need to give Mr. Hill no less than 30 years.... That’s not his full life, and we had a little discussion at jury selection, if you read your jury instructions closely, toward the end it will explain all this to you,....
30 years in the Texas Department of Corrections, based on what you read in that charge, is what society deserves. .... And when you go back there in that jury room, 30 years will tell Mr. Hill that we’re not animals, that we are civilized human beings who have some concern for each other and a government that actually cares about its citizens, and 30 years is what you should get for committing three robberies, four months out of TYC.
Hill argues that egregious harm is shown because of the length of the sentence. I disagree. The record shows that only four months after being released from a two to three year stint in Texas Youth Commission for drug use and possession of a firearm, Hill committed three armed robberies during the course of a single day and used the money to purchase drugs. There was testimony that he showed no remorse for the crimes. The potential range of punishment for this offense was five to ninety-nine years, and a fine of up to $10,000.00. Under such circumstances, and considering the fact that the jury could have chosen to sentence him to nine*510ty-nine years in prison, I cannot conclude that Hill was harmed by the charge error.
I respectfully dissent.