Court Opinion

ID: 9684880
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:17:31.572844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:00.874403
License: Public Domain

BAIRD, Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the majority, that in the instant case, the proper question of whether the juror could consider the minimum punishment if a child was the vietim/or witness was not the type of question where a challenge for cause would be warranted upon *144receipt of a negative answer.1 I write separately to make clear that in some instances, the inquiry at issue here could result in valid challenges for cause.
I.
“Our precedents teach that qualified prospective jurors must be able to consider the full range of punishment applicable to the offense submitted for their consideration.” Fuller v. State, 829 S.W.2d 191, 200 (Tex.Cr.App.1992)(citing Pyles v. State, 755 S.W.2d 98, 103 (Tex.Cr.App.1988); Nethery v. State, 692 S.W.2d 686, 691-92 (Tex.Cr.App.1985); Barrow v. State, 688 S.W.2d 860, 861 (Tex.Cr.App.1985)). Jurors can be challenged for cause, if, in a proper case, the juror is unable to assess the minimum or maximum punishment.2 If the crime, as defined by law, specifically includes the element that the victim is a child, then in those types of inquiry, a juror would be subject to a challenge for cause if the full range of punishment could not be considered.3
With these comments, I concur in the judgment of the court.

. See Maddux v. State, 862 S.W.2d 590, (Tex.Cr.App.1993), for a discussion concerning why the instant inquiry was a proper question.

. When a question to the venire goes beyond the elements of the statute, but is not an attempt to commit the jurors to a certain verdict, those questions are proper and are of the type which assist counsel in determining their peremptory challenges.

. For example crimes such as, capital murder, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(8)(murder of an individual under six years of age); indecency with a child, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 21.11; aggravated sexual assault of a child, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.021(a)(1)(B); injury to a child, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.04; abandoning or endangering a child, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.041; inter alia, contain a child victim as an element of the offense.