Court Opinion

ID: 9682267
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:08:48.424231+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:38.556941
License: Public Domain

GRANT, Justice,
concurring.
I agree that the objection made in the trial court is not the same as that urged on appeal, and the complaint is not preserved for review. However, for child witnesses no longer required to swear or affirm, the witness should be admonished to tell the truth as part of the protection under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution as applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Fultz complained that the alleged victim was not admonished to tell the truth before making her statement. As the United States Supreme Court held in Maryland v. Craig, the right guaranteed by the Confrontation Clause of the Constitution includes not only a personal examination of the witness but also insures that the witness will give her testimony under oath, thus impressing the witness with the seriousness of the matter and guarding against a lie by making it subject to the possibility of a penalty for perjury. Maryland v. Craig, 497 U.S. 836, 110 S.Ct. 3157, 111 L.Ed.2d 666 (1990).
As the majority has pointed out, under Texas statutory law the oath is no longer necessary for a child if the child is otherwise admonished in a manner appropriate to the child’s age and maturity to testify truthfully.
The entire admonition to the child to testify truthfully given in lieu of an oath in the present case was as follows:
CPS employee: “Well,_, you know what? This is a special room.”
Child: “I know it is.”
*763CPS employee: “We only tell the truth in this room.”
Child: “I know it.”
CPS employee: “Okay, so do you know where we’re at?”
Child: “Special room.”
I do not think this complies with the requirements of the Confrontation Clause or Tex.Code Cbim. Pboc. Ann. art. 38.071, § 5 (Vernon Supp.1997). I concur because the error was not preserved.