Court Opinion

ID: 9681569
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:52:47.732282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:34.472726
License: Public Domain

John G. HILL, Justice,
(Assigned) Dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because the trial court denied Cole’s due process rights by failing to consider the full range of punishment prescribed by law, depriving the defendant of a fair and impartial tribunal at the punishment hearing. The predetermination is demonstrated by the trial court’s threatening of a twenty-year sentence when Cole was placed on deferred adjudication probation, and then, at the hearing after the court proceeded with the adjudication of guilt, the trial judge said to Cole, “I told you that if you failed to report you were going to the penitentiary; didn’t I tell you that?” Cole answered affirmatively. The trial court subsequently assessed his punishment at twenty years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division. The trial court violated Cole’s right to due process. See Jefferson v. State, 808 S.W.2d 470, 472 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1991, pet. ref d).
The majority does not hold that the trial court did not violate Cole’s due process rights. It holds that Cole waived his right by failing to make an objection. As this Court pointed out in Jefferson, until the judge assesses punishment the defendant is entitled to assume that the judge will perform his solemn duty to assess punishment upon consideration of relevant evidence. Id. This Court also stated that once the judge assesses punishment based on factors such as his promised punishment period any recusal motion or an objection would be futile. Id. The majority does not refute the fact that an objection in this instance would be futile, nor does it directly contend that an objection is necessary even where its futility is apparent. Because I agree with this Court’s conclusion in Jefferson that an objection is not necessary in this fact situation because the futility of such an objection is apparent, I would hold that Cole did not waive error by failing to object. I would therefore sustain point of error number one and reverse for a new hearing on punishment,