Court Opinion

ID: 9863264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 03:19:02.275549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:40:22.987259
License: Public Domain

MANSFIELD, Judge,
dissenting.
Recently we held in Ex parte Hernandez, 906 S.W.2d 931 (Tex.Crim.App.1995) that Art. 36.29, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure mandates “no less than 12 jurors can render and return a verdict in a felony case” unless one juror “dies or becomes disabled from sitting at any time before the charge of the court is read to the jury.” Article V, Section 13 also requires that petit juries in district courts shall be composed of 12 persons.
*82Today, the majority overrules Hernandez. I agree with the majority’s implied assertion that where a defendant knowingly and intelligently waives the 12-person jury requirement it is unfair to give him a “second bite at the apple” by overturning his conviction by the 11 person jury he accepted in open court. However, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Texas Constitution and stare decisis compel me to dissent to the majority’s disposition of this cause, and appellant, though undeservedly, is entitled by law to reversal of his conviction and sentence and remand of this cause for a new trial.