Court Opinion

ID: 9768524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 06:07:29.999543+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:41.688539
License: Public Domain

McCORMlCK, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
The trial court convicted appellant on her plea of guilty for the offense of possession of marihuana in an amount over fifty but less than two hundred pounds. Punishment was assessed at confinement for ten years. The conviction was reversed. Morales v. State, 838 S.W.2d 272 (Tex.App.—El Paso 1992). We granted the State’s petition for discretionary review to determine whether the failure to admonish a defendant on a plea of guilty as required by Article 26.13(a)(4), V.A.C.C.P.,1 requires reversal when the record is silent as to the defendant’s citizenship.
Appellant entered her plea pursuant to a plea bargain agreement. Prior to accepting the plea, the trial court correctly admonished her as to (1) the applicable range of punishment; (2) the existence of a plea bargain agreement; and (3) her limited right to appeal. It is undisputed that the trial court totally failed to admonish on the potential immigration consequences facing a non-eiti-zen rather than giving an incomplete admonishment on the subject.
The Court of Appeals held that in the absence of any evidence as to citizenship there is nothing to rebut the presumption of materiality of Article 26.13(a)(4) which flows from the statutory requirement of giving admonishments to all defendants. Article 26.-13(a), V.A.C.C.P. Thus, in a situation in which there is a complete failure to admonish, substantial compliance2 can only be shown if the omitted admonishment is not material. Whitten v. State, 587 S.W.2d 156 (Tex.Cr.App.1979) (opinion on motion for rehearing). In Whitten, the record failed to show that the admonishment was not material:
“This Court has recognized two situations where deficient admonishments are considered to be in compliance with the statute. The first situation is where an admonishment was not given but the admonishment was immaterial to the plea in that case, such as where the trial court failed to admonish on the non-binding character of prosecutorial recommendations and no prosecutorial recommendation had been made. See, e.g., Jamail v. State, 574 S.W.2d 137 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Kidd v. State, 563 S.W.2d 939 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Bouie v. State, 565 S.W.2d 543, 553 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) (Onion, P.J., concurring). However, where the admonishment is relevant to the voluntariness of the plea, as is true here with the admonishment on the range of punishment, substantial compliance cannot be satisfied merely because other required admonishments were provided.” Whitten, 587 S.W.2d at 158.
Thus, a complete failure to give a particular admonishment required by Article 26.13 may nevertheless be in substantial compliance with the statute and not constitute reversible error per se. Subsequently, however, in Ex parte Cervantes, 762 S.W.2d 577, 578 (Tex.Cr.App.1988), we held:
“While admonishments which substantially comply with Article 26.13 are sufficient, the complete failure to comply with an admonishment required by the statute requires reversal. Ex parte McAtee, 599 S.W.2d 335 (Tex.Cr.App.1980). Such a complete failure is reflected in this record.” 3
*758Cenantes and the instant case, however, deal with a failure to admonish on a topic which will not be applicable to every defendant. There is one major difference between the situations presented in Cenantes and the instant case, however. In Cenantes the record from the habeas proceeding was clear in its showing that applicant was not a citizen of the United States. Here, the record is completely silent. Cenantes showed that the omitted admonishment was material thus removing the case from that area of substantial compliance due to immateriality identified in Whitten. No such showing has been made in this case. We have previously held that a showing of harm or prejudice was required on appeal before a failure to fully comply with Article 26.13 would constitute reversible error. Glister v. State, 522 S.W.2d 494 (Tex.Cr.App.1975). We believe that such rule should be extended to those situations where the need for an admonishment is dependent upon the status of the defendant, such as the instant ease.
I would therefore hold that a defendant who complains of a total failure to admonish pursuant to Article 26.13(a)(4) must show materiality by a showing that harm or prejudice as set out in Article 26.13(c) attended the failure to give the admonishment. To the extent that language within Cenantes would conflict with this holding, I would overrule it. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the cause to that court for consideration of appellant’s remaining point of error.
CAMPBELL, J., joins this opinion.

.The statute reads:
"(a) Prior to accepting a plea of guilty or a plea of nolo contendere, the court shall admonish the defendant of:
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"(4) the fact that if the defendant is not a citizen of the United States of America, a plea of guilty or nolo contendere for the offense charged may result in deportation, the exclusion from admission to this country, or the denial of naturalization under federal law."

. Article 26.13(c), V.A.C.C.P., reads:
"(c) In admonishing the defendant as herein provided, substantial compliance by the court is sufficient, unless the defendant affirmatively shows that he was not aware of the consequences of his plea and that he was misled or harmed by the admonishment of the court.”

. However, McAtee involved a complete failure to admonish on the applicable range of punishment, a failure which had earlier been characterized as fundamental error such as to foreclose a *758requirement of a showing of harm. Walker v. State, 524 S.W.2d 712 (Tex.Cr.App.1975) (opinion on appellant's motion for rehearing); Murray v. State, 561 S.W.2d 821 (Tex.Cr.App.1977); McDade v. State, 562 S.W.2d 487 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Fuller v. State, 576 S.W.2d 856 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Stewart v. State, 580 S.W.2d 594 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Weekley v. State, 594 S.W.2d 96 (Tex.Cr.App.1980). The admonishment as to range of punishment can easily be seen to require such a prophylactic rule since each and every criminal defendant’s plea will be affected to some extent by the range of punishment attached to the crime to which a plea will ultimately be entered.