Court Opinion

ID: 9684879
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:17:31.569478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:00.869663
License: Public Domain

MeCORMICK, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
I concur only in the Court’s judgment for the reasons stated in my concurring and dissenting opinion in Johnson v. State, — S.W.2d -, 1998 WL 692441 (Tex.Cr.App. No. 0536-97, delivered October 7, 1998) (McCormick, P.J., concurring and dissenting). The Court’s opinion applies the rule stated in Smith v. State that jurors “must be able to consider the full range of punishment for the crime as defined by law.” Sadler v. State, 977 S.W.2d 140 (Tex.Cr.App., 1998); Smith v. State, 513 S.W.2d 823, 826 (Tex.Cr.App.1974).
However, Garrett v. State and other cases applying Garrett effectively have held jurors are not required to consider the full range of punishment for the raime as defined by law. See Garrett v. State, 851 S.W.2d 853, 860 (Tex.Cr.App.1993); see also Howard v. State, 941 S.W.2d 102, 126-30 (Tex.Cr.App.1996) (op. on reh’g); Zinger v. State, 932 S.W.2d 511, 513-14 (Tex.Cr.App.1996); Castillo v. State, 913 S.W.2d 529, 532-37 (Tex.Cr.App.1995); Johnson, — S.W.2d at -, 1998 WL 692441 (McCormick, P.J., concurring and dissenting). Therefore, in this case the Court should declare Smith to be another one of Garrett’s collateral casualties and simply hold that a party is not entitled to jurors who will consider the full range of punishment for the crime as defined by law. See Johnson, — S.W.2d at -, 1998 WL 692441 (McCormick, P.J., concurring and dissenting); Garrett, 851 S.W.2d at 861-64 (Campbell, J.) (discussing Garrett’s collateral casualties).
With these comments, I concur only in the Court’s judgment.